Strategic Breeding with James Skehan
James changed the calving season for his herd in 2023 to match the grass growth on his farm. This year he really enjoyed the break between Christmas and when calving started in early February, so he plans to continue it.
Breeding will start on April 26 and finish on July 5, which amounts to 10 weeks. So what will he be doing to prepare for it?
Getting to grass – getting cows to grass as soon as they calve to build body condition back up.
Vaccinations – a booster vaccination against leptospirosis will be given by early March, with heifers receiving the primary vaccination, which consists of two injections four to six weeks apart. The infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) results from autumn showed that 11 out of 20 cows are positive for IBR, so on veterinary advice James has vaccinated all breeding stock against it too.
Minerals – the cows and breeding heifers will be given two boluses at turnout, which contain copper, iodine, cobalt and selenium.
Selecting heifers for breeding – heifers have already been picked based on their Eurostar figures and parentage, but their weight will be monitored to ensure they are over 400kg at 15 months of age. These will be synchronised and bred to AI in the first week of the breeding season to an AI bull.
Buying a new stock bull – the old bull was sold in 2023 and James has a new bull bought who will be arriving to the farm this month. He will be fertility tested beforehand and will also be vaccinated against leptospirosis and IBR.
James has selected the same AI bull for his heifers as he used in 2023, SA4604. He is very happy with the calves born to date who also have good maternal genetics if he wishes to keep replacement heifers from them, but are still good for carcass weight. Most importantly, his heifers have calved him at 24 months of age with no difficulty. He has a replacement value of €236, a heifer calving difficulty of 5.1% at 99% reliability, is +20.1kg on carcass weight, +7.4kg on daughter milk and -7.47 days on daughter calving interval.
Eurostar figures for Knottown Roy, SA4604 (Source: ICBF)
As James is working off farm in a job that involves shift work, he finds heat detection challenging when trying to AI. Therefore he tried synchronising the heifers last year and found it worked well. This year he has selected 6 heifers and 6 cows to synchronise when they are over 35 days calved. He plans to start the programme so that they will be due for AI in the first week of the breeding season. A recommended protocol for heifers is outlined in the Figure below. Due to James’s time constraints he will be implementing the cow synchronisation programme for both the heifers and cows in consultation with his vet.
Synchronisation protocol for heifers
Synchronisation protocol for cows
James decided to select a different AI bull for the cows and chose CH5980, Jalabert. He has a replacement index of €170 and a terminal index of €162 and is only 1.8% on cow calving difficulty at 96% reliability. His carcass weight figure is excellent at 42.6kg and he is 1.68 on carcass conformation. He is also strong on daughter milk at +10.4kg and is -1.57 days on daughter calving interval.
Eurostar breakdown for CH5980, Jalabert (Source: ICBF)
Farm Walk
James will be hosting a ‘Feeding and Breeding’ farm walk on Thursday 21st March at 2pm.
Topics to be discussed are:
- Getting the most from grass
- Silage 2024 – How can you save money?
- Bull choices and breeding plan 2024
All are welcome to attend.
