I have been calving my heifers at around two years of age for upwards of 15 years. It has not been easy and I definitely have not got everything right over that period, but the financial rewards far outweigh any difficulties. Why would you keep an animal for an extra six or 12 months for no monetary benefit?

However, I do know there are plenty of farmers who have tried it and failed – they find it easier to let them run over and calve at three years of age.

In my experience, getting the heifers to calve at two years is the easy part. The difficult bit is trying to make sure that they have their second calf at around three years of age.

I seem to have it cracked for my spring-calving herd, but the autumn-calving herd is more of a struggle. My spring-calving herd is out at grass and when excellent-quality grass is available, it provides the nutrition required to ensure heifers go back in-calf and calve their second calf at around three years of age.

Herd size

With my autumn-calving herd things are not as straightforward. I only have a six-week breeding period and I lose a lot of my heifers that do not go in-calf. I have found it difficult to keep my autumn-calving herd at the size that I want.

I put a lot of heifers in-calf and the number that I bring in every year should mean that I am actually increasing the size of my autumn herd.

The fact this is not happening is not really the end of the world, with these heifers worth good money to fatten once they have reared their calves. Perhaps I should content myself, but there are too many potentially good cows that are only having one calf.

I have tried to perfect my system to ensure I can get it to work. I restrict the suckling to twice a day and this helps to bring the cows into heat and have stronger heats. I have also tried to improve the lights in the cattle house, to try and make the cows think it’s summer instead of the winter.

Fail

Autumn-calving is not the natural time for cows to calve, so you have to be on the ball with all aspects of management – it won’t work unless everything is perfect.

I think where I fail is with the quality of silage. I try to make the best-quality silage I possibly can. It is generally fairly good, but fairly good is not good enough.

I try to balance the quality of silage with meal and, in theory, this should solve any issues, but it rarely seems to work out.

Too light

Having thought about it all, I suspect some of my heifers are a little light when I initially put them in-calf. So when it comes to breeding a second time, the animal still has some growing to do – if the nutrition is not perfect, they do not come into heat, and I struggle to get them back in-calf.

With the spring-calving herd, you have the excellent-quality grass in May and June and this can correct any mistakes, and make you think that you are a good farmer.

So while I can manage calving at two years old with my spring-calvers, I am a long way from getting it right with my autumn-calvers. I can sympathise with those farmers who believe it can’t be done on their farms.

Having said that, I am not going to give up. Going forward, I will aim to make better silage and try to ensure my heifers are a bit bigger when I breed them.