Calving season is progressing well here in Abbeyleix, thank God. As I write this, we’re 66% calved, with just two losses to date, both of which have been unfortunate, but part of farming life.

The second loss was a heifer calf from a heifer. I was watching the calving closely, but when things weren’t progressing, I decided to intervene.

When I checked, I found the calf was coming with its head twisted back and legs down. I did my best to get it out, but sadly, I wasn’t quick enough. It’s easy to look back now and say I should have acted sooner, but hindsight is a great thing.

Another disappointment came with a cow that was scanned in-calf, due to calve in early March, but when I handled her, I found she was empty. Just the day before she came bulling, I had off-loaded the last of the culls. So now, she’s in her own pen for fattening.

Speaking of culls, the last seven averaged €1,715, which I was more than happy with. It’s great to see beef prices at this level, but I hope this isn’t just a temporary spike. Beef farmers need prices like this to make a decent living, and I hope this becomes the new norm for beef prices.

On the health front, we’ve had two cases of mastitis. One heifer got it before calving, and thanks to the collar flagging her early, I was able to catch it before she got too sick, but unfortunately, she lost a quarter.

The second case was with a cow who had a teat stood on in the cubicles. This caused damage to the teat canal, and she couldn’t be milked out properly.

After discussing with the vet, the best option was to remove the teat, and now she’s healthy and milking fine on three quarters. There have been a few other cases of teat damage in the cubicles as well.

Interestingly, there are more cubicles than cows, so over-stocking isn’t an issue. It almost seems like the cows have too much space, which results in them lying out, and their udders are exposed to other cows’ hooves. This is something I’m keeping a close eye on.

I have our opening grass cover at 1,300kg DM/ha, the snow did do some damage to covers and flatten grass. But it should be high DM grass, so I’m hoping it won’t be far-off.

We closed at a high cover and grass was looking well until the snow came, and the cows are very content out on the grass, so I think the cover is there.

At the moment, we’ve 20% grazed and I’m following the spring rotation planner. They’re getting 5kg of nuts in the parlour and around 2-3kg DM of 74DMD silage when they come in from grazing.

On wet days, I set the bat latch for three hours after each milking, but on dry days, like we’ve had for the past two weeks, I set it for 2pm and 11pm.

I find some cows like the option to come in for the night, and this way they have the option to stay out if they want and they are not standing at the gap if they want to come in. In terms of fertiliser, I spread 25 units/ac of 46% urea on the paddocks that didn’t receive slurry last week. For the paddocks that have already been grazed, I spread one bag per acre.

I’m also selling some of our silage this year, as we have more than we will use, especially with cows out grazing now. If we don’t sell it, we won’t have enough space in the pit for the first and second cuts. The 4m high silage walls I installed last year have worked a treat, and I plan on putting in more this year to increase our capacity. Of course, I need to get the silage moved before I can put in the new walls, but it’s a good problem to have with the amount of silage we’ve got. Spring is always a busy time, but I’m hopeful that we’re on track for a productive season ahead. No calves have been sold yet, but some should move this week or next, as they will be three weeks old.