It appears winter has finally arrived in south Leitrim.

With such bad weather over the last few weeks, the cows had already been getting hay twice a day in the fields to try to prevent them tramping the fields, along with warding off tetany.

Though there’s always a high-mag lick with the cows, it’s nice to ensure every cow is also eating hay, as we can never be sure they’re all using the mineral licks provided.

The cattle seemed to appreciate it too, as they were waiting at the gate each morning for their feed.

When heavy rain was forecast, the decision was made to split the heavier bulls and their cows off and house them, leaving the younger stock outside.

Before the cattle went in, a few repairs were done to the shed. The shed has lasted pretty well since it was built in 2000, with only a few minor bits needed, such as fittings for drinkers and welding jobs.

Last year, two of the drinkers sprung unfixable leaks and while minor, it was irritating to see them constantly dripping and spraying water over the slats.

So two shiny new drinkers and fresh timbers went in under the feed barriers, as the old ones had finally given up the ghost and started to rot.

Costs

I certainly wouldn’t like to be building a new shed now with the cost of materials - six 14ft timbers came to €177.

We certainly built our new additional shed just in time, as the price would likely be much higher if we left it until next year.

The only issue is that with both hay and feed stored in it, we have a slight rodent problem.

Thankfully, we have a couple of excellent mousers in the cats and nearly every morning there’s one or two to be found left outside the door.

We even had a rat one morning to my surprise and a very smug cat sitting beside it.

Normally our calves would be sold in Carrigallen Mart, but when we weighed them for the BEEP-S scheme, they were just not going to hit the target weights I had in mind, though for March/April calves they did very well, with an average of 320kg at six months of age.

Slightly young

These I felt would be slightly young for selling at the beginning of October, so the decision was made to go to Elphin at the end of the month instead.

It’s certainly a help that with so many marts in the area, we can pick and choose which sale suits us best.

Delightedly, our herd test was clear, so it was full steam ahead with preparing them for sale.

As we have a three-bay shed, we put the cows in the top pen and the calves in the bottom, leaving the middle pen free, so the calves can’t suckle through the gates.

It works very well, as the cows don’t get stressed with calves being removed all of a sudden and we start by letting them to the cows once a day, then every second day and so on.

As they were all eating nuts since July, the weaning went very smoothly, with very little stress, albeit it was a noisy shed for a few days.

By coincidence, three of the housed cows normally need to have their feet pared in early spring, but looking at them in the shed, it was decided to do them now before their feet got bad.

Embedded stone

We’ve used the same hoof care service for as long as I can remember and I can’t fault it.

But this time was certainly a first, as he found a stone embedded in one cow’s hoof, something I’ve never seen before, and a strange one, as she wasn’t even lame on it.

While I know they should be culled for poor feet, they all produce excellent calves and are very quiet to handle, so they get a reprieve each year, as they’re so used to the crate they walk straight into it for their pedicures.