Three weeks of AI were completed on Monday and aside from four late-calving cows, all have been served. Tail painting and keeping them in paddocks convenient to the yard made heat observation straightforward. I got a bit of help from some enthusiastic bull calves too. From 9pm until darkness proved to be the busiest time.

Usually by the end of May, there’s a cull group of cows here. Most will be highlighted for the road after calving or even after scanning last autumn.

This year, things are a bit different. There’s only a pair of cows formally identified for culling. They have been difficult to manage but for different reasons, so won’t be bred again. Focusing on not breeding troublesome heifers and culling similar cows is paying off and herding is a much more pleasant job as a result.

Culling for the sake of it doesn’t appeal to me, as there’s some cows consistently performing well every year. But I can’t keep them all, and with pressure coming in the form of a good crop of 2021-born heifers, something has to give.

A compromise has been reached for this in-herd dilemma. All cows will get one AI straw and after that any cow I would have had on a provisional cull list won’t be served if she repeats. Nature can weed out the poor fertility and will determine who stays or goes. For some cows, this could be the last straw.

Culling for the sake of it doesn’t appeal to me, as there’s some cows consistently performing well every year

I’m aware there’s a risk. What if they all hold? While I’m confident in the fertility of the herd, I’m not that optimistic. It could make for a busy March, but 100% conception to first service seems like an overly ambitious target. After the calving season just passed, I’d be confident of handling things.

In hindsight, it was the calmest calving season I’ve ever experienced. The jack was needed once and six gloves were all that was used over the 10 or 11 weeks for handling. Weather dependent, calves went out within 24 hours of birth in many cases and only a dozen required dehorning.

The bull went out with the young cows last week, so that will stagger demand on calving facilities. That should result in a two week burst between the heifers, older cows and young cows next spring, with a few stragglers that weren’t caught in the first three weeks of each group making up the balance.

In hindsight, it was the calmest calving season I’ve ever experienced

Economics has played a part in the breeding decisions. If this was a farm selling weanlings I might be taking a different approach, but the fact all the cattle are finished means costs involved in that have to be factored in.

As a result, Hereford was the main sire used, with a similar number of Angus and Simmental used. That’s a big change in breeding in comparison to four years ago. There’s been a share of traditional breed bulls crossed on the Simmental cow base here over the last few years and I’ve been pleased with the results.

Carcase weight is back a little, but fat score is improved, while ration use and age at slaughter have decreased. The latter two points will gain increasing importance for the beef sector in the coming years, and that was what influenced the decision to throw a few other breeds in the mix.