An angel Gabriel descended on our farm over the Christmas, though not of the celestial sort, but of the hoofcare business.

While we were fairly certain one cow had an abscess as she’d gone lame overnight, another needs her feet done each year and as she’s the oldest cow in the yard – herself and Gabriel have been on first-name terms for quite some time.

Unfortunately, this also makes her rather crafty and she planted herself slap-bang in the middle of the crate and no amount of bucket shaking or arm waving could get her to move her head in and allow her to be caught.

ADVERTISEMENT

Eventually she got bored of this battle of wills and with a sigh that could be heard in Roscommon, she deigned to move forward.

After all that she was as good as gold and luckily for her we didn’t give up as a small piece of gravel had worked its way up through her hoof and must have been causing some discomfort.

With a new shoe for a gift she practically danced her way back into the pen and there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the difference in an animal after a job well done.

Despite her recent sore feet, however, she was never bullied, being herd matriarch for many years seems to have stood her in good stead as no cow in the same pen would dare to move her from the prime spot at the feed barrier.

On occasion we feed hay instead of silage and the stock who prefer hay would usually fight to get the choicest pieces with the younger animals all preferring hay to silage while most of the cows couldn’t care less about what they get as long as there’s enough of it.

Hay V.S. Silage.
The calves tend to prefer hay but it will vary depending on the silage quality & how freshly opened the bale is.
Jenny just likes whatever anyone else is having ?? pic.twitter.com/T5Gn0nGOoq

— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) December 13, 2025

The first cow to calve was also due on New Year’s Eve and hopefully all will go well with her. I’m not psychic but I’ve a feeling she’s carrying a bull calf which would be a nice change as it’s been a couple of years since I had a pedigree Limousin bull to train for the sales.

As she was too far gone to scan I’m working off a gut feeling with her so it could all be a case of wishful thinking yet. Last year she calved in February during the power outage aided by tractor lights so hopefully a similar event won’t occur this year.

The beginning of a new year is always a good place to take a look back at what’s on the never-ending to-do list around the farm and for starters we’ve finally gotten around to making a plan on what to do with the sad remnants of our hayshed.

Two girders were removed from one end and the current intention is to turn it into an open fronted machinery shed. We should be able to keep the remaining pillars in position and also reuse many of the timbers.

This is open to change but despite their age, the timbers are in excellent condition and it’d be a shame to not reincorporate them in some form, along with saving on expenses.

The fields are also looking in excellent condition with barely a rush in sight (as long as you squint and don’t look too closely) so they’re well set up for the beginning of grazing though that’s quite a while away yet.

It does a person good to be able to look around and have some sort of plan in place once the longer days roll around again even if they’re of the most basic sort as on a farm things can change rapidly from day to day.