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I think the sucklers must have gotten confused by the red alert last week and took it as permission to start calving as soon as the snow and wind arrived here in Cavan.
We have a hardy herd of Aberdeen Angus cows which have outwintered and calved down under bushes for the past thirty years with minimal issues.
A saturated 2017, combined with an increase in numbers has led to all cattle being housed this winter.
With the increase in housing my bedding budget went through the roof much to the delight of my straw supplier.
Calving
The plan was to get the cows out to calve come the start of March when the ground had dried up-that was the plan anyway until Storm Emma arrived.
Aside from issues with frozen pipes, shed space and being snowed in for a few days, we got off lightly in comparison to some farmers.
It was a busy few days of carrying buckets and filling any storage device possible with water when we could get the single tap working.
The red clover silage sown in May last year has made a noticeable difference to finishing cattle.
Despite this, I had held on to the final few pens of finishers a few weeks too long in the hope that the organic beef price might miraculously increase. It didn’t, which meant that extra shed space was virtually non-existent in the run up to calving.
Natural shelter
Biodiversity is high up the list here and the farm has a lot of natural shelter in the form of gorse and hedgerows.
But natural shelter, while enough for the sheep, was never going to be enough for newborn calves in last week’s weather. Aside from food and water it really is a basic necessity to provide adequate shelter, natural or otherwise, for cattle – thankfully we could.
Emergeny sheds
We stepped back a few decades and with a quick tidy up got the old stone yard back in action. Cows and calves were moved here from the main shed after they had sucked and settled.
Shed ventilation was forgotten about as the old sheds filled up with warm and happy calves – the lofts above are still home to the remains of hay brought in by horse and cart. You could almost imagine everything as it was 60 years ago.
It was also a reflective week for us all here as we saw the passing of a man who was an integral part of this farm.
He had worked and lived here his whole life and would have brought in that very hay many years ago.
His hands shaped every wall and layed every hedge. I’m sure in a way he would have enjoyed Storm Emma, to see another year’s batch of new arrivals and the old stone sheds bedded with straw and back in use.
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