It was a tough spring on many farms around the country and this was no different on the farm of James and John Flaherty in Cordal, just outside Castleisland.Along with having to buy in extra meal and fodder this spring, the Flahertys also had to contend with a pneumonia outbreak on the farm, suffering some losses from it.
It was a tough spring on many farms around the country and this was no different on the farm of James and John Flaherty in Cordal, just outside Castleisland.
Along with having to buy in extra meal and fodder this spring, the Flahertys also had to contend with a pneumonia outbreak on the farm, suffering some losses from it.
“We had issues on the farm this year with pneumonia - we lost calves from it. It was very disheartening to be honest. I had a lot of my good cows left with no calf at foot and with the year that was in it, I had no other option but to cull them,” said James.
“No matter how bad it gets, we still have to move on. If we got caught up on everything that goes wrong in farming, we would get nothing done. I know we weren’t alone this year as there were many farmers with the same problems up and down the country.”
“Cattle were inside for far too long this year. The sheds are fairly well ventilated but there are improvements to be made, such as a couple of small changes over the next few months to improve airflow. Keeping animals warm was not a problem, keeping the animals cool was the biggest problem we had. ”
Breeding
Breeding is to commence this week. James spoke of his plans for it: “I have held back my breeding season this year because I want to have my cows calving closer to grass turnout next year.”
“This year we have a vasectomised bull with a MooCall Heat collar to pick up the cows in heat. My father and I have developed an easily accessible handling yard with walkways leading to and from it. We move cattle every 24 hours to paddocks at opposite sides of the yard. We walk the cattle through the yard and separate any cows that are in heat and AI them," James explained.
"Cows are all in good condition and are showing heats regularly. I had no major difficulties with hard calvings and all cows cleaned after calving," he added.
The Flaherty's heifers were all given a shot of estrumate over the weekend and are currently being monitored for signs of heat. If a heifer doesn’t show a heat she will be re-injected 11 days after the first shot and will receive fix-timed AI 72 hours later.
“I will breed my heifers to an easy calving Salar bull with a short gestation length. It's better having the heifers calving that bit earlier than the cows to allow them more time to recover ahead of breeding next year," James said.
“When selecting bulls for AI, I like them to have a fairly good replacement value with a terminal value equally as important as I finish most of my stock. “
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