Traditionally the west has always borne the brunt of the storms coming in over the Atlantic. Hence it’s rather surprising to see the east coast had been inundated with rain and flooding in recent weeks. While we’re still experiencing a large amount of rainfall, we’re much drier in comparison, though you’d certainly not want to take the tractor for a jaunt across the fields.

One small mercy however is that this incessant rainfall is occurring now and not when we’re trying to get stock out in April.

This time last year, during storm Éowyn, a tree fell in close proximity to my parents’ house, meaning it would only be a matter of time before one caused major damage.

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Tree surgery

Last week, we finally welcomed a tree surgeon who removed nine offenders which would be liable to cause damage in future weather events.

With the land being so wet, the fields have been left looking like a second storm passed through with branches and trees strewn around until we can access them during drier weather. Though most are of the dreaded soft wood variety, there are some ash which should make good firewood in time.

The cattle indoors know nothing of these goings on outside, and although the slurry level is slowly creeping upwards in the tank a bit faster than we’d like, it looks like we’ve another month or so before we need to think about panicking. It’s certainly not affected their breeding cycles either and to our surprise even the cow which calved only a month ago has shown heat.

Conveniently, both herself and the two maiden Limousin heifers all came in heat within three days so we’ll try them all next time around and if they all hold, we will hopefully have some nice early pedigrees running around.

A single calf takes just as much time to manage as two or three calves born together so if we manage to get these in-calf first time it should make one job slightly easier next spring.

Sale

As some of you may know I’m extremely picky with cattle and am usually the first to point out a fault in our own stock.

While I knew my little roan heifer was nice, I didn’t hold her in any exceptional regard so I wasn’t expecting anything special.

At the last January sale in Carrigallen opinions varied from “she’s too young” to “the sweetest thing I’ve seen since my wife on our wedding night”. Being quite light at 308kg, I was as wise as ever as to how she’d fare out in the ring.

Opening at €1,700, I certainly did not expect the bids to continue creeping higher and higher and there was complete silence around the ring until the gavel fell at just under €3,000, and a resounding clap broke out for the smallest bidder with the biggest smile. Gone for showing this summer to young Darragh and Patrick Foy, judging by the video updates I’ve received she is certainly going to be one very spoiled heifer.

Not to be outshone, the two other July calves averaged €1,950 at 330kg, not a bad return for six-month-old stock. One wonders if prices will be similar when the next batch of calves are being sold, with bluetongue and Mercosur on everyone’s mind.