Breeding is progressing nicely. The heifers are with the bull a fortnight and it will be AI time for the cows shortly. Bulls are selected, so there is the small matter of team selection of the cows to deal with first, to see which ones return to the bull this year.

I’m old school in some ways, so my highly-sophisticated system entails taking out a sheet of paper and writing out the full list of cows and heifers. It’s not high-tech, but I need to be able to see all the cows listed together.

Most years, I wouldn’t show Dad the sheet, in case he might baulk at the numbers that are there.

It’s a long way from the four that calved in 1989 when he started the herd. Adding up the culls and question marks listed sees that number drop to one less daunting for the land base.

Once the initial choices are sorted, it’s time for nature to take over. There’s always going to be a handful that won’t hold in-calf

Feet issues or docility are the main reasons for not breeding cows again.

Every year, the bar gets raised in terms of docility. An odd one slips through the net, but they don’t stay around for too long. Screening the heifers begins not long after they are born and continues for the next 12 months.

After they are selected to go to the bull, it is out of my hands. I was guilty of tolerating cows with temperament issues in the past and it was the height of stupidity when I think back on it. Life is far too short to be dealing with the likes of them.

The filtering out of troublemakers from the initial selection has made the herd easier to work with, especially at calving time.

You’d still be wary, but thankfully, the days where a cow would be roaring at you for just walking in the door of the calving house are gone.

It’s also noticeable that there are a higher percentage of older cows making it through. The longevity of the best ones shines through, with a good few making it beyond eight calves now. Ideally, they’re the ones I’d like replacements from in future.

There’s plenty of air time being given to the national herd and fears it will be reduced.

A 5% reduction is the new magic figure. I got out my trusty biro and sheet of paper again and looked at the CSO December livestock surveys compiled from 1998 to 2019.

The stats show the herd size to be fluid, to the point that over that 21-year period, the herd has gone down 15 times and increased six. Indeed, between 2008 and 2010 it went up and down around 5% each time.

Defending the size of the herd is the populist thing for farm organisations to do and looking for it to be reduced fills the same role for environmentalists.

Maybe it’s a distraction for both sides from more difficult decisions.