Our yard is about 200 metres from the house. I’ve put in serious mileage walking over and back there through the years. There’s a whitethorn bush about two thirds of the way over. That’s where I think of my mother. If I was busy in the yard, she’d walk there to meet me on my way back to the house. We all have our little habits. I’ve a new one myself. I drive the car over to the shed. A bit over the top indeed. There is a reason for my laziness. If I put up the mileage on my legs from early morning, then the day is over by lunchtime and I have to rest. So, I’m taking the car. As Tim said yesterday, “a good valet at the end of the calving season will get rid of my muddy boot marks”. It’s day eight of this chemotherapy cycle.

Twins

A few days ago, I was out in the car. I got a text from Tim. Cow number 264 had produced twin Jersey X heifers. There’s always excitement about twins.

Colm looked after their first feed. That night, the car and I headed over to the new calf shed. I marvel now at the facility that it is. When we moved in last year, everything was new – automatic calf feeders, the building and the layout. I worried that it might not all work.

We were changing everything together. I found it stressful. This year, I know it works and I’m also aware of the little tweaks in management we need to make.

JFC held an open day here for potential customers that might want to put in automatic feeders in late November. It meant the shed had to be ready.

I’d welcome Mark Burke from JFC and Declan O’Donnell from Evolution every year to get us in shape. It meant the mad rush of getting ready was gone. Moreover, our minds were focused on calf rearing

Our teams were put in place. It’s probably the bit about family farming that I love most and that is us all working together. We’re all busy. We get on with it – pick up the next calf, put a band on its neck, record the event and get the colostrum warming.

We’re a bit slow off the mark this year. It is partly by choice as dairy farmers had such hardship last year in the bad weather

By Valentine’s Day, we had 35 cows calved. Tim brought me the first bunch of daffodils from down the fields.

There is only one thing on dairy farmers’ minds and that is calving. If they meet each other or text, the questions are the same; how many calves have you and how is it going?

We’re a bit slow off the mark this year. It is partly by choice as dairy farmers had such hardship last year in the bad weather. Our cows go straight to grass as they calve and grazing was challenging in spring 2024.

Be organised

Tim’s lovely mum, Lil died on 1 May last year. It was the appointed day for the start of breeding. Obviously, all things farming paused except for the essentials. That delayed breeding another week. Now, the calves are coming fast and furiously.

Sinead O’Donnell, our farm apprentice, and I pick up the calves here in the morning. We get on with feeding the new calves and those in the shed. I’d be lost without her. We are getting into routine and our jobs are becoming more streamlined by the day. We must or we will not cope.

The focus is on being really organised and diligent with our recording and communication. We have a whiteboard and it is essential that it’s kept up to date so that the next member of the team can continue the work without the frustration of trying to figure things out.