Paula Hynes: It takes work to reduce the workload!
Tommy Picture: Hynes Paula Heffernan
It has been a hectic week on the farm with so many different things happening, and I often think it takes work to reduce the workload.
We started off the week by drying off all the spring calvers; we drafted in extra help as it is a job that needs attention to detail. All cows received a long-acting dry cow tube and Fatroseal teat sealers.
We milked all the fresh calvers early that morning and then took our time with drying off the other cows. They have milked well this season and although we milked less cows overall, we matched our milk production for October 2024 versus October 2023 and nearly doubled our November milk production.
With drying off completed, there was a little more time available to celebrate my birthday; it was wonderful to go out for a family meal, take a break from cooking, and enjoy a nice Italian meal.
Brendan Greenan arrived into the yard earlier that day to hoof pare all the show animals and he is a super hoof trimmer.
As the show animals spend more time on straw beds, they have less hoof wear, so it is important to keep them trimmed, and it is easier to do routine hoof trimming than wait until a problem arises.
With all the birthday cards opened, we dosed all the in-calf heifers the following day, clipped their tales and fitted their Datamars collars. They will be calving at the beginning of January, and it is important that the collar builds data on the heifers now as to feeding and rest times.
A new addition to the Datamars system is that it will give an alert a couple of hours prior to calving, so we will be monitoring the alerts against what we visually see once calving begins and sharing the information as we work closely with their vets and technical team.
In a week where we focused on prepping for calving and drying of cows, we also served 18 of the fresh calvers, not all the semen we required had arrived on farm and it seems there are constant delays with semen arriving into Ireland since Brexit.
Luckily, we had a plan B as the Blondin sires semen arrived on farm a few days earlier. As with the spring calving cows, we also used beef semen on cows we do not require replacements from.
Becky puts a lot of work into matching sires with cows, she looks at all the genotyping data from the cow or heifer and also looks at the animal itself to see what traits we need to improve with the next generation and then selects sires that will improve those traits. A huge emphasis is put on confirmation, at the end of the day a cow needs great feet and legs. Strength is also crucial in a cow and cow size so we always look at the stature of bulls.
It seemed fitting that the Precision Microbes roadshow kicked off this week in Cork with Vet Tommy Heffernan giving a very informative evening on calf health and calf rearing.
It was a packed house at the Rochestown Park hotel and the event was a credit to the organisers and sponsors, FBD, JFC, Cormac Tagging and Interchem alongside the Precision Microbes team.
Tommy Heffernan has been on the farm a few times with us, and he always gives us food for thought.
Tommy highlighted the importance of colostrum management and how the dry cow diet can influence colostrum quality. Given that forage quality is an issue on a lot of farms this winter, it is important to look at silage quality and consider adding oats and a protein source to dry cow feed.
Everyone who attended the event got a free refractometer in their bucket of goodies, which will easily test the quality of colostrum, but what I also learned on the night was that it can also be used to test milk replacer when it is mixed to ensure it is being mixed correctly.
He also spoke about calf housing, he stressed that a calf shed should be built to suit farmer and calf. Ultimately, calves will have to be housed on farms for longer as regulations change going forward, so it is crucial farmers invest in calf-rearing facilities.
I fully agree with Tommy that it is not sufficient for calves to be weaned when they are eating 1kg of calf ration, we offer it to them for two to three days of age and the curious calves will start nibbling at it straight away.
We see heifer calves eating 3-4kg of calf ration a day by the time they are weaned and they continue on that along with a forage source for a few months after weaning.
It may seem like a high cost, but it is the most efficient time to maximize growth rates. Correct colostrum management combined with top-class rearing will see a dairy calf fulfil its genetic potential as a dairy cow.
We still haven’t perfected it, but we are improving things every year, learning from others and also seeing the differences on-farm as we improve management practices.
We started using Precision Microbes as a preventive measure a few years ago, and now we feed it to every calf from birth, including the beef calves.
It may to some seem like another cost, but what we have seen on the farm is that by keeping calves healthier on the farm, we have reduced our vet bill, we have less scour, and any calf that does get scour receives an increased dose of PM for a few days and recovers faster.
Ultimately, a healthy calf, is a thriving calf, for me there is no point in using the best genetics, producing the highest genetic merit animals, if we don’t do the simple things right on our farm to see that new born animal fulfill its potential.
