On farm visits to a group of suckler farmers in County Kerry, these farmers take pride in the production of top quality weanling stock from the suckler cow. 30% of the cows presented have abnormal reproductive function post calving associated with calving difficulty or the nutritional management of cows prior to calving. In order to […]
Read MoreVisited a client in County Cavan who had purchased in calf beef heifers. They were meant to calve in February based on a certificate of pregnancy diagnosis. However, neither of the heifers had calved when I examined them. They are now approximately 240 days leaving at least another month before they calve. This is totally […]
Read MoreOn farm visits in County Armagh & County Down, a noted feature was the number of cows with swollen hocks. This cannot all be explained by injuries associated with housing alone. It has been shown from published literature that micro toxin combinations of diets can result in swollen hocks in cows. These swollen hocks are […]
Read MoreVisited a farm in County Laois where a client had implanted in excess of 60 embryos on the same day into a group of surrogate beef heifers. We scanned the heifers from day 32 of pregnancy. Based on eye-balling of the pregnancies when scanning, the foetal ages ranged from 29 days to 35 days. It […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit in County Cavan, a client presented heifers which were returned to him after previously being sold through a mart for a subsequent fattening. The heifers turned up in calf and the purchaser did not want the risk of caesarean or calving difficulty. It cost him €250 per heifer returned. The client […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit in County Offaly, a dairy farmer informed me with the poor weather conditions and the grass shortages on the home farm created a situation with the choice to feed silage or to graze grass from an outside farm. However the distance involved walking cows on a public road was prehibitative. A […]
Read MoreFarm visits today entailed a series of dairy farmers throughout the Dingle peninsula in Co. Kerry. A range of reproductive problems were encountered and targets were set for dairy farmers to maximise submission rate over the following three week period. Breeding programmes are just about to begin on these farms with a preference for calving […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit in County Limerick a farmer had a severe outbreak of stomach fluke associated with severe debilitation in the health of a dairy herd. He could not understand because the animals had been treated during the dry cow period and the time of calving to manage stomach fluke. However, in further discussions […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit a client presented a large group of cows which had not been detected in heat in a Spring breeding programme. It transpired that a high percentage of the cows not detected in heat were pregnant! A stock bull was running with the Autumn calving herd and the freshly calved Spring cows […]
Read MoreMilk prices are taking a downward spiral because of increased milk production in some of the major milk producing countries around the world. India for example was a net importer of milk products up to last year and now is a net exporter. Milk supplies have increased by 9% in New Zealand and over 3% […]
Read More
085 858 1985
