With only the stragglers left to calve, the breeding season commenced last week.

Ideally, I’d prefer a gap between the two events, like last year, but it wasn’t to be. A few select heifers got AI and the bull went out with the rest on Monday.

We’re trying to see if we can have most of the heifers calved before the cows start, so this year, they will be getting a month or so with the bull.

We’ve tried this before, but having two bulls available at the out-farm led us to taking the easier labour option and leaving them together longer.

With beef prices holding better for heifers than cows, exposing them to a short breeding season will pick up the most fertile

Most heifers tend to get bulled in the first three weeks, but there was always a few that would slip into the second or even third cycle and they were on the back foot after calving. There’s only one bull going to the ground at Ballinascarthy this year too, so that will remove the temptation to leave them longer.

With beef prices holding better for heifers than cows, exposing them to a short breeding season will pick up the most fertile and the rest can go for finishing if they show up empty at scanning.

The bull will run with the heifers first and then switch over to the cow group. Breeding won’t commence with the cows at home until late May. The plan is the same as other years, three weeks of AI followed by the bull tidying up.

Farm sustainability programme

The news that Bord Bia plans to upgrade its quality assurance scheme has left me in two minds. I understand the need of the farm sustainability programme, as it’s a basic entry requirement for most markets, but it can’t become another data-collecting exercise with no trickle-down benefit to the primary producer.

Proving that we’re greener than green is going to be a prerequisite over the next decade or so

The global meat market is a busy place and differentiating your product is required. We’re not the only country claiming to have the best beef in the world.

Proving that we’re greener than green is going to be a prerequisite over the next decade or so. That can be seen in the direction that the European tax payer wants the CAP to go.

Agriculture was a firm target in the climate change debate until the pandemic hit. A reprieve from the negativity for a few weeks came as uncertainty drove the importance of food.

With government formation talks moving up a gear, more adversarial headlines towards the sector have begun to reappear. Facts and scientific data will come into play much more. COVID-19 has provided an unexpected bonus in this regard.

Farmers rarely see the added value of assurance schemes returned in the price we receive, or if it does, it is far from transparent

With society more or less shut down across most of western Europe, there is now data available that shows a noticeable drops in air pollution levels.

A positive for Bord Bia is that some of the data measured on farms may benefit the sector as a whole in future climate debates. Farmers rarely see the added value of assurance schemes returned in the price we receive, or if it does, it is far from transparent.

If the financial benefits could be fed back or displayed more, it may appease farmers. If that doesn’t happen, farmers won’t buy in and the scenes of 2019 could be repeated.