Calving is progressing well in our spring herd, with over 65% of the cows calved in February.

The majority of heifers entering the herd this year are a three-way cross between Holstein, Fleckvieh and Norwegian Red. The first appearances seem positive, but time will tell how they perform within our system.

The autumn batch of cows is currently averaging 26l/day at 131 days in-milk, at a feeding rate of 0.31kg/l, with the herd averaging 3.29% protein and 4.29% fat.

Grass

During last week’s grass walk, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of grass on the farm, with an average cover of 2,489kg dry matter per hectare (DM/ha).

All ground was grazed with sheep over the winter period, as we often struggle to get out early enough to manage grass. Also sheep grazing helps grass tiller and manages weeds.

At the beginning of February over 85 acres of this grazed area received 2,500g/acre of slurry, spread by our contractor using an umbilical system

Ground conditions are far from ideal for this time of year, but hopefully with the day length ever increasing, a few dry days will allow for the first of the fertiliser to be spread and animals can be let out to graze. In previous years we have practiced on/off grazing to reduce poaching when ground conditions are difficult.

First scan

The first scan of this year took place in mid-February and involved autumn cows that were artificially inseminated (AI) in the first three weeks of breeding, from the 22 December to 12 January.

This is my third year of DIY AI. Although the relatively low number of repeats looked optimistic ahead of the scan, I’m always panicking until the first scan is complete, as often by the time fertility issues are detected the breeding period has finished.

Thankfully, we had a good result with a 49% conception rate, which translates into 41 cows in-calf from 84 straws used.

Surprisingly, we had higher conception rate with sexed semen straws (60%) compared to conventional straws (36%). However, this is likely due to the characteristics of the animals the straws were used on rather than the actual straws themselves, with older and carry-over cows receiving conventional semen.

I finished AI-ing on the 30 January after five weeks, and the bull was then with the cows for just over two weeks. The intention is that calving in the autumn herd will be complete before December begins.

Heifers

The heifers have been running with an Angus bull during the breeding period, and over 50% of these were scanned in-calf, due in the first three weeks of October.

Eventually, I intend to move to full AI on all animals, as we had issues with low fertility in bulls two years ago which adversely affected conception rates.

We are currently keeping two bulls but moving to two calving blocks and AI-ing means the bulls are only required for a limited time in the yard.

Therefore, with the separate space and maintenance of the bulls, it is no longer cost-effective to keep them on the farm.

The positive scan results with the milk cows and having gained confidence in the process, my aim is to take the next step by starting to AI future batches of maiden heifers.

Jessica Pollock.