Surrounding the next gen with great people
In Preparation 11 Show And The Becky For In On Busy October National Millstreet 12 Clipping Dairy Hynes
Well, our UK adventures are truly over for the foreseeable future, and to say they have been adventures is an understatement. You certainly learn who your friends are when you compete at so many different shows and spend so much time on the road.
We are truly blessed to have Magic in a wonderful home up in Shropshire, where they are very happy with her progress as a heifer in milk. If she continues to progress the way she is at the moment, then she will be furthering her showing career next season as a milker.
All eyes now are on choosing a sire to get her back in calf. We are extremely lucky to have such a good relationship with Semex and now deal with them directly in the UK, so it means we can have straws sent to any location in the UK, and also gives us the advantage of looking at newly available sires and having them delivered to us at home through Munster Bovine.
With Becky now home, the clipping crate has been busy as it is full steam ahead in preparation for the National Dairy Show in Millstreet, which takes place on October 11 and 12.
She has truly mastered the art and has such confidence now, and I think those who have mentored her will be pleasantly surprised when they see how she has progressed.
I think that is all we can ever hope for with our kids, that they have great mentors and great friends. The journey of life will teach them some great lessons, at times, it will teach them some harsh ones, but at least when we look on as parents and see them progressing and learning to surround themselves with great people, we can breathe a sigh of relief to ourselves because unfortunately the world we live in is not always perfect and it certainly is a rollercoaster.
The sudden change in the weather is a shock to the system; cooler days and the oil skins have been dragged out of hibernation, unfortunately, as days have become wetter, and as I sit here writing, the evenings certainly have closed in as autumn is well and truly upon us. All one can dream of now is cosy nights in front of the fire, watching TV or reading the .
As our workload will slowly start to wind down once the dairy show is over, we are hoping to plan a little break to recharge the batteries, sometimes I feel the easiest way to deal with life, is to get away from it for a few days and while we never get much a chance to recharge the batteries over the summer, it is crucial to find time at some stage because no one is invincible.
The winter routine on the farm is somewhat easier to manage, all the new born calves are well settled into their routine now of growing up, i can honestly say the biggest gangster calf of all is our little Jersey calf Tiramisu, she makes me laugh every day, she is fully convinced she is a cow already and has an abundance of attitude. One thing is for sure, if Tiramisu has the same attitude in the show ring next season, Georgie will have her hands full.
Farming is always a job of planning ahead. Breeding season will be looming fast now for us, the crucial thing now is ensuring every animal is in good body condition.
Some heifers will be served with sexed semen while the remainder will be embryo recipients. Cows will receive beef semen with only the elite cows being served to sexed Holstein semen.
We also have to keep winter housing in mind but that is in the hands of the weather gods at the moment. Spring incalf heifers will be calving earlier in 2025 so we will most likely house them a little earlier but hopefully that should allow us give the maiden heifers a really extended grazing season.
Drying of the spring calving cows also has to be considered and we have Fatroseal teat sealers on farm so antibiotic tubes must be ordered. Amongst all the small jobs to be planned on farm, there is also Beckys trip to Australia to be planned as she is heading down under again for International Dairy Week where she will be working on an even bigger string of dairy animals this time.
It is always a case of looking at cows milk in the parlour, what their body condition is like, how loose or dry their dung is and also evaluating their weight including weight loss and weight gain as every cow is weighed here twice daily using the WOW system with Datamars.
It really is a super piece of kit as it is set up on the exit from the milking parlour, cows walk over a weighing platform with their EID tags read automatically. Bill has direct access to this information at all times so even if we are not due a visit, he can see how cows are performing.
It is amazing how advanced technology has become, our colleagues in Semex UK also have access to our Datamars heat detection so they can monitor how breeding season is going. All this takes a lot of the guess work out as we can make real decisions on farm.
As I began writing this, I thought to myself, life is quiet at the moment and there is not much to write about but as you can see farm life is forever evolving, thinking ahead and perhaps that is why I am a fan of check lists. A quiet week is simply a chance to catch your breath and evaluate what needs to be done.
