Farmer Writes: a great start to the spring

What an absolutely brilliant few weeks of weather we’ve been having.

I know some of you will be starting to shout for a bit of rain, but be careful what you wish for.

The rain will come soon enough I’d say and you know when it starts in this country, sure it doesn’t know when to stop.

The good weather makes farming a real pleasure. There’s nothing as nice as going out the back door in the morning and the heat from the sun hitting you.

Our poor dog Poppy, who sleeps in the back hall, is out the door like a bullet as soon as it’s opened, as the sun beaming in the back door makes the hall feel like a glass house.

Then driving around checking stock that are lying out stretched with the sun on their back, belly full and them as content as can be.

The simple things in farming can give great contentment and peace of mind, as opposed to going out in the pouring rain, cattle standing at the gate of a tramped field roaring looking for a change and you with nowhere else to put them. It is not great for the old mental health.

Thankfully, we don’t need to worry about that for the moment and, hopefully, the last few weeks are a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.

Breeding heifers

The dairy heifers are in the middle of synchronisation programmes at the minute, with the first batch being AI-ed last Friday and the next batch to be AI-ed next Friday.

The programme has changed slightly from what I have been used to for the past six or seven years, but my AI man assures me it’s the job.

There’s a little more work in it, as the stock have to be handled five times instead of three, but, if the results are good, I won’t mind about that.

Day one, CIDRs in and inject with 2ml Receptal or equivalent. Day seven, 8am inject with 2ml of Estrumate or equivalent.

Day 9, 8am take out CIDRs. Day 10, 6pm inject again with 2ml Receptal and day 11, 8am AI.

A bull will then be introduced around 14 days after insemination to pick up whatever didn’t hold.

Synchronisation is one of those things that can sometimes be a bit hit and miss, but I’ve been doing it for a good number of years, firstly in my own cows and now in the dairy heifers and have had reasonable success.

It sure takes the work out of AI. I always tell people to aim for 50% conception rate and hope for better, just to avoid disappointment, but 60% to 70% is usually fairly achievable - famous last words.