Farmer Writes: young bull escapes with model cow

I have always rated my wife’s skills at breeding a superb herd of cows that can produce milk from grass, but the other day her skill at breeding virile bulls was highlighted.

A young bull escaped and discovered the plastic life-size cow on the front lawn. He spent a whole hour happily and frustratedly trying to mount said model, and he was only slightly perturbed by us taking photographs.

Luckily the plastic model was strong enough to take his weight and life-like enough to attract his attention. The model cow was a present from my mother-in-law to her daughter.

I never discovered if she approved of her daughter from town marrying a farmer and did wonder if the Christmas present was an attempt to persuade said daughter that cows didn’t necessarily have to produce effluent and have attention 24/7.

Difficult spring

On a more serious note on the farming front, it has been a difficult spring, but nowhere near as difficult as you have had to suffer over there.

We turned out two months late due to wet weather conditions and had to leapfrog over some pastures because they were waterlogged.

These subsequently went to head and were made into wraps, which we are now feeding back as the drought has struck with a vengeance. All the second-cut silage has gone to head early so we are about to take those off and yields are low, but hopefully we can source maize for the winter to offset any shortfall.

Grass wheel

Danny, our student, has just left for pastures new and we now have a team milking the cows, so transfer of information is very important.

A very useful tool for this has been a home invention we call the “grass wheel”. This is a white board, a yard square, with a green pointer and a white pointer with a black line running concentrically around towards the centre, leaving an inch gap.

Pastures to be grazed are written down in the gap and the green pointer is today’s date and where the cows are feeding. The white pointer indicates the last pasture fertilised and when the contractor arrives he can see the paddocks that need fertilising, and on completion moves the white pointer hopefully up to the green pointer.

If dates are written on this it can be retained as records for later use.

New cubicle shed

This summer we are planning to build a new 120-cow cubicle shed and I am considering using the new Irish Easyfix plastic cubicles. I would very much welcome comments from anyone who has used them, as I have had problems contacting the company selling them.