Calving has been in full swing during March, although the end is now in sight.

My spring herd started calving about three weeks ago, with 35 now calved, leaving only eight left to go. They have been coming thick and fast with no easing off since they started.

Last year, when I scanned these cows, I was a little disappointed as I thought the conception was poor. I was even calling into question my ability to get cows in-calf through artificial insemination.

To be honest, I am glad that conception was not any better. The pressure we have been under with housing space has been unreal.

Advice

For years I have been listening to advice from so-called experts who maintain that you need one calving pen for every 10 cows that are due to calve.

I had 43 cows to calve this spring so in theory I should get away with four and a half calving pens. I actually have seven, so I should feel confident that I have more than enough to cope.

However, in reality, I have just about got past, although on a number of occasions I have had to double up by putting two cows in a pen designed for one.

I think where the advice falls down is that it doesn’t take into account that sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

While calving has been fairly straightforward, there are always a few problems to deal with. I have had some heifers that have taken a few days longer to fully mother up with their calves.

Also, there have been a couple of older cows with udders which have become more difficult for the calf to suck, so the calves needed a few days longer to get going.

When you have a few cases like this it starts to backlog the calving pens.

With a few out of circulation there is more pressure on the rest.

On two different days I had six cows calved so that was basically everything filled in the one day.

The only solution that I can see for next year is to ignore the experts and try to get a few more calving pens in place

It meant that I was having to move cows and calves into group pens after less than 24 hours. I would much prefer to give them two days before moving them.

Every year I tell myself that I need more calving pens and not to listen to advice that says I have enough.

Weather

There is one other issue this year and that is the weather.

I would have liked to put some cows and calves out to grass at this time of year but unfortunately, that is not going to happen any time soon. I used to start calving in February, but I have delayed that until March in the hope of getting some out to the field.

I have also shortened my calving spread down to six weeks and this is probably putting a bit more pressure on my calving pens.

I have actually considered letting my calving spread drift out to nine or 10 weeks.

This would definitely take a lot of the pressure off and would probably spread the workload. But I am not sure if this is what I want.

When I look at the nice even batch of calves it helps make it all worthwhile. Also, when you get though those first few weeks, you soon forget about all the stress.

However, the one thing that swings it the most is the fact that those three weeks are out of the way just before lambing starts. We are just starting lambing now and with calving almost finished, it means that we are able to concentrate on the sheep.

All in all, the only solution that I can see for next year is to ignore the experts and try to get a few more calving pens in place.