My aim of putting a bit of daylight between the end of calving and start of breeding was achieved when the last cow calved on Sunday. It’s the first time that I can recall that I won’t be watching at least one cow to calve, while keeping an eye on the rest for AI. I actually enjoy calving time, but the enthusiasm starts to wane when there are two or three cows left weeks after the main bunch. Those calves, while welcome, complicate things a little later on at weaning and never get the same run the older calves do. The next target is to widen that gap between the two events.

Breeding will commence at the end of next week and for the first time in I’d say around 30 years, we’ll be synchronising the heifers.

There’s a good selection of them to choose from and, given the main herd is largely young cows, the plan is to go one round of AI now and a select few will get a second chance if they repeat.

Synchronising was chosen as they are at the young stock block of ground and it’s not as easy to get them in the yard every day.

To prepare them, they have been getting a small pick of ration, two or three days a week in the shed.

That makes it easier to get them in and they just walk past me to get in now, so hopefully they’ll do the same next week.

It could be a one year only experiment, but I think it’s worth trying and labour saving is one of the main reasons why I’m giving it a go. It’s also an opportunity to broaden the net in terms of introducing new genetics into the herd.

With the exception of two older cows, nothing else is selected for culling, so breeding will tighten up across the herd as a result. I’m conscious too of where the beef price is, so that’s a good cushion for those that don’t go in calf.

For the last three years, at least 90% of the heifers that calved did so in the first three weeks of calving and it made management much more straightforward. They were in a separate house from the cows at calving and they were kept apart from the older cows at grass too.

It was my intention to synchronise the heifers last year too, but the bad weather put the kibosh on that idea.

A young bull was kept back and he’s running with the young cows in Ballinascarthy this year. He went there last week with the few late calvers and they’ll all join up with the main group at the end of the month.

Those cows act as a babysitter for him and if they come in heat and pull forward a few weeks at calving next year, that’s okay too. It will be all bull there with mainly AI on the home ground and the older stock bull will mop up after.

A small group of cows will run with him from the start, including a pair of purebred cows. I did similar last year too, with the hope of getting heifer calves from him as he has been an exceptional bull, with a super influence on the herd.

That didn’t work out, as I ended up with three bull calves from the two cows, but I’ll give it one more go and hope for the best.