Farmer Writes: managing herd health and making difficult decisions

As we near the end of our calving season here in Abbeyleix, we’ve just hit the 83% mark at week six, with the last cow due to calve on 15 April. While things have generally been going well, we’ve had a few hiccups over the past week that have given me plenty to think about.

One of the more significant issues was a cow suffering from severe E-coli mastitis. We had to call the vet out and thankfully she’s recovered, but fairly shook. She’s in her 10th lactation now and has been an absolute stalwart for us, averaging 600kg of milk solids per year.

I’m not sure if she’ll come back into milk, but regardless, this will likely be her last year with us. It’s always tough to make that call with cows that have been so productive, but it raises the question – how far do we push our older cows?

I have several cows around the same age, all producing well and calved early, but I’ve been wondering if this is the time to make the decision not to AI them next year.

It’s difficult because, despite their age, they’re still doing well, but I want to make sure we don’t push them beyond their limits. At some stage, we have to consider their long-term welfare and the sustainability of the herd.

We also faced our first case of milk fever this year. One cow went down on the slats, but I was able to get her into the calving box and onto straw. She was eating and ruminating, so I assumed she’d be fine after two bottles of calcium.

But it took a third bottle into the vein and two lifts to get her back on her feet. It was strange because last year our collars would have alerted us about her not eating or ruminating before we would’ve seen any signs of milk fever.

This time, however, she was still doing both. Thankfully, she pulled through and made a full recovery, but it’s a reminder that even with technology on our side, we can’t afford to be complacent.In addition to that, we had a couple of cases of mastitis during the very wet weekend a couple of weeks ago.

We decided to keep the cows in for the two days of rain – back out grazing by Monday. Conditions have improved since then, with excellent grazing, and we’re seeing the benefits of some sunshine.

We’ve now grazed 35% of the area with minimal damage, thanks to careful management, using multiple entrances and back fencing. We are allocating 0.25ha per grazing and feeding 5kg of nuts in the parlour, with the balance made up of silage or zero-grazed grass.

I have all of the heavier covers grazed off and we’re now into covers of 1,400-1,600kg DM/ha. I’ve also started zero-grazing one of the silage blocks, as there’s a nice cover of grass that I’d prefer to clean off before applying slurry for silage.

If the ground had been wet, I wouldn’t have been able to do that, so I’m glad we’ve had some dry weather.

This week, we’re spreading slurry on the silage blocks with the nurse tank and umbilical system, which I find much better for the ground in terms of compaction.

The alternative would be to bring the tanker in and out 20 times, but with only one way in and out of the blocks, I feel it’s not a great job this time of year. We’ll apply 3,000 gallons/acre.

Overall, the cows are milking well, averaging around 25l, with butterfat at 4.91%, protein at 3.54% and an SCC of 68,000. We’ve also started selling some of our bull and heifer calves, with 10 heifers and 16 bulls sold last week. The heifer calves sold had an average EBI of €260.

While calving season may slow down a bit from here on in, these challenges remind me that every season brings its own unique set of hurdles.

For now, I’m focused on managing our cows’ health and wellbeing, and making the right decisions about our older cows. They’ve served us well, but it might be time to make the difficult call to let them go with dignity.

The farm is in a good place overall, and I’m confident that with careful management, we can continue to build a sustainable future for the herd. The key, as always, is finding the right balance between pushing for production and knowing when it’s time to step back.