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Breeding has kicked off this week in the cow herd in Tullamore Farm.
Cows have been tail-painted for the last three weeks and 85 out of 87 cows have cycled. The two cows that have not cycled had hard calvings and will be scanned this week to diagnose any issues. Seven cows have been inseminated so far in the first three days of breeding.
Cows are being inseminated between 1pm and 2pm, each day by a local AI technician.
Bull selection
Cows are being heat-checked at 8am, 1pm and 10pm. Mature cows are being inseminated with a team of five bulls as detailed in the table below.
Some second-calving cows will be inseminated with Ulsan, which is an easy-calving Salers bull.
Our bull selection was based on a high replacement index, with calving difficulty below 7% and high reliability for cows.
Our maximum calving difficulty limit in heifers was 3%.
It is planned to AI for four to five weeks and then turn out three stock bulls with the herd. The bulls are two Limousins for the mature cows and one Aberdeen Angus for the heifers and some second-calving cows.
AI started on the heifers on 24 April and seven out of 15 were inseminated by 30 April. The remaining eight heifers received 2ml of prostaglandin on Monday 1 May and will be inseminated to standing heats on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
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