At long last I have finally got a chance to sit in the office to look back on the busiest period of the farming year. The spring went very well for us, with calving finished in early April. The calf housing facilities came under pressure at times. The mart was a welcome release valve for the bull calves and I turned out some heifer calves from mid-February to a sheltered paddock with access to a small straw bedded house.

Expansion

This year I have grown the herd by 30% from 100 cows to 130 cows. It is easy to underestimate the amount of extra work that it brings, even though it is little over an extra row of cows at milking time as I have been gearing up facilities over the last number of years. Stocking rate on the milking platform is perhaps the main challenge, at 3.8 lu/ha it gives a grass demand of almost 70kg per day. This should be achievable for the main growing months during the summer. The autumn will bring it’s own challenges.

Breeding season

Is the breeding season the second busiest time of the year or is it on par with the spring time? I know that my days at the moment are just as long if not longer than they are during the spring. Milking takes longer as every cow gets forensically inspected at morning milking for signs of any tail paint removal, and at every evening milking tail paint is topped up, with the cows served earlier that day getting a new colour.

It looks like I will get close to my target of 90% submission rate, I did a week of pre-breeding heat detection and these cows got topped up a different colour. Red at the start, then green after pre service heats, then blue once served (its not as bad as it sounds). I am just passed the second week of serving now and the handful of cows that are still painted red will be scanned to see why they are not cycling. The heifers are checked at least twice daily, which takes at least 20 minutes every time. I had planned to inject any heifer not bulled on day 10 but between one thing and another I just did not get around to getting it done, so plan B is to inject any that I have missed on day 21.

Grass

After almost perfect conditions in April, May has come as quite a shock. The joy of a days rain on the May 1 was short lived. The farm had dried out considerably during April. An easterly wind and just 12mm of rain for the entire month contributed to near drought conditions. We are just 12 days into May and already have had 123mm of rain, thankfully ground conditions are holding up exceptionally well. Cows are occasionally on 12 hour breaks but if at all possible 24 or 36 hours preferred. The heifers are challenging enough too, paddocks are being divided up like spokes of a wheel to ensure the least amount of ground damage.