Housing environment – an integral feature of heifers coming out of puberty.

  On a farm call outside Listowel today, farmer presented two batches of heifers which had been split when they went in for winter housing. The strongest heifers were placed in a poor housing environment where there was insufficient cubicle spaces and a slatted environment. The second batch of heifers had excellent cubicle spaces, rubber […]

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Cows scanned pregnant carrying twins can often mummify one of the calves and a single calf can be born.

The photograph enclosed is the mummified foetus born co twin to Friesian heifer calf. Smart scan previously identified that this animal was carrying twins at a later stage of pregnant beyond the stage where foetal gender could be determined. A single ever calve was born and this mummified calf was born co twin. The heifer […]

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Herd health problems increase dramatically in spring calving herds as cows have to be housed for extended period after calving.

  Farm visits in county Cork and Limerick today reveal that farmers are unable to milk cows outdoors because of poor grazing conditions. Ground is saturated because of high water tables and an extremely wet month of February. The calving season for spring calving is now well underway with almost 40% of cows calved in […]

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Smart scan pre-breeding essential with maiden heifers.

On a farm visit in Co. Antrim today, where a group of 30 maiden heifers were presented for a pre-breed scan in conjunction with the use of sexed semen. Smart scan revealed that over 50% of the heifers weren’t cycling even though they were fit in terms of stature and body weight. Smart scan technology […]

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Expansion in dairy being severely restricted in Northern Ireland by planning regulations for slurry storage.

  Farm visits in county Derry this week revealed that dairy farmers will definitely not be able to expand cow numbers on the basis of planning for future expansion being restricted by environmental odds being enforced. Slurry storage, ammonia emissions, methane production within 77 km of any community setting will have to be restricted to […]

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Heat detection systems involving activity monitoring present too many false positives.

On a farm call to county Cork today with a large dairy herd encompassing both dairy cows and maiden heifers for smart scan. On this farm heat detection system involving activity monitoring using collars on the cows to identify cows for AI in both dairy cows and maiden heifers with the primary mode of heat […]

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*** Mental Health – A significant problem on multiple Irish dairy farms. ***

  This time of year is reaching peak of calving on many grass based dairy systems. The demand on labour is at its most critical junction in terms of cows calving, rearing of calves, adjusting freshly calved cows to milking routine and an increased demands of cow’s dietary requirements. Freshly calved cows enter a natural […]

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Case Study: using sexed semen in Dairy cows.

Farm visit today, to a bottle dairy farmer outside Birr, County Offaly. Eoin Lyons milks approximately 120 cows in a robotic milking system and calving cows from November through to April. In this system of production, he starts breeding in February. Eoin uses smart scan technology from Reprodoc to identify cows suitable for breeding with […]

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***The Curse of Twins in Dairy cows.***

Many farmers dislike cows identified as carrying twins. The incidence of twins in dairy cows increases with the milk production potential of the herd. Therefor as the stress of milk production increases or other environmental stresses in the herd, the risk of cows starting with twins increases. Unfortunately, the incidence of layer embryonic death beyond […]

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Farmer in Portadown questions pregnancy diagnosis using milk samples collected at milk recording.   On a farm visit to a client in Portadown today, discussion arose whereby the client had been approached by his milk recording company to use milk samples collected at the time of milk recording to diagnose the pregnancy status of his […]

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