When I am out in the country artificially inseminating cows, there are some farms that I seem to be with every month of the year. In other words, they are probably calving cows the whole year round.

If I question them on this, the answer is along the lines of “it’s a good thing to get a live calf at any stage of the year”. And I suppose it probably is.

I have to admit that I used to be one of these farmers myself, and at the time I thought that this was the right thing to do.

I recently sold all my spring 2019 bull calves to the meat plant. Initially, two went away first because there was a risk of them going overweight.

Then the rest all went in the one lorry load as they were ready together.

In my opinion, this was ideal as the pens were cleared out in the one go. There was no faffing about selling a couple every week for a few months.

It really brought home the benefits of having a compact calving period

The reason that I was able to do this was because they were all born within an eight-week period last spring. It really brought home the benefits of having a compact calving period.

It was a timely reminder for me, as at the time I was seven weeks into this year’s breeding period and was wondering if I should keep going for another few weeks. I decided to stop at the seven weeks. If they’re not in-calf by now they can move on.

Simple answer

I have a friend who runs a bull with his suckler cows. He starts calving in December and, in a good year, he is finished in August the following year. When I question him on this, he always says, “well what can I do?”

The answer is simple (so simple that it sounds stupid) – you take the bull out.

I know that not everyone is going to be that ruthless, especially in the first year, and breeding over just seven weeks is a tight window. But all you need to do is to set a realistic target and stick by it.

You must have a finishing date and stick by it

If it is 12 weeks (which seems to be the target set by a lot of advisers), put the bull in when you want to start breeding and take him out 12 weeks later. No ifs, buts or maybes, and if a cow comes on the next day, let her go.

I know from personal experience that you will have cows coming on a few days after you stop breeding, and how easy it is to convince yourself that it’s only a few days. Then you try her again and in another few days you have another one. It’s a never-ending cycle. You must have a finishing date and stick by it.

I have not always been as ruthless as I am now. There were times that I slipped over my stop line. It is one of the easiest things to talk yourself into doing, but I have never had a good outcome from it.

Problems

I always find that the last five or six cows to calve will give more problems than the 40 or 50 that have gone before. If you get them calved successfully, they are still always at the tail end.

You then have small calves at weaning (assuming you wean them all together). In a pen, they are the ones likely to be bullied and miss out on feed. And (almost always) they are the ones left when everything else is sold.

I take a lot of satisfaction going into a field of cows and calves and seeing all the calves lying together

To compound this, the cow will probably again be one of the last to breed next year, and it turns into a vicious circle.

I take a lot of satisfaction going into a field of cows and calves and seeing all the calves lying together, and the calves all of a similar size. To be honest, it is the same with any group of cattle.

So, it’s coming to that time of year (on a lot of suckler farms) when breeding has been going on for quite a while. Consider a date to stop breeding and stick by it. In my experience, it will be worth it.

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