On a farm visit outside Derry a client informed me of a survey detailing the current profitability of milk production on dairy herds in Northern Ireland. On this client’s farm, the current cost of milk production is 18 pence per litre. The average cost of milk production on 50% of farms in the North was […]
Read More1. Stop breeding programmes for Autumn calving by 10th March to get a break for the Christmas period. This will also help to sterilise calving pen areas and calving areas prior to Spring calving programmes. 2. Freshly calved cows need adequate supplementary concentrates to avoid body condition losses in excess of half a kilogram […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit this morning outside Stracone, in Co. Antrim, visited a dairy herd which had a Lely robot in place to milk currently 60 cows. What appealed to me on this farm was the calmness in the housing environment with the cows. The cows were completely at ease in the production system. The […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit to Chris & Nora Foley in Askeaton, Co. Limerick, I encountered cows being fed fresh grass harvested using a zero-grazer imported from Italy. This machine can harvest 2.5 tonnes of fresh grass at 20% dry matter. They currently feed this to 53 cows once daily. Zero grazing is an option for […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit outside Knockanore, Co. Waterford, we did a pre-breed assessment of herd health status of cows using ultrasonographic assessment of the reproductive tract (USART) for cows calved greater than 14 days. The Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese Company use our technology to ensure that the cows are fit after calving and thereby having great […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit outside Brosna, Co. Kerry I scanned a herd of shorthorn cows for a client who previously had a pedigree holstein herd. He had reduced the number of pedigree holsteins and introduced a line of pedigree shorthorn cows, introduced from the UK market. He showed me cows which have peaked at 8 […]
Read MoreA cow in Co. Limerick, Ireland has produced 16 calves in the past 4 years. The Guinness Book of Records states that the most live births for a cow is 5 calves. However, this cow has gone and done it twice! The Ray D’Arcy show are running a competition to come up to name the […]
Read MoreVisited a client in Co. Meath who has a large dairy herd and was trying to identify animals successfully with Johne’s disease but this has become a nightmare as his herd has been locked up on two successive winter periods because of breakdowns with TB. He has to undergo vigorous testing to address the issue […]
Read MoreFriesian bull calves are currently averaging 80 Euros in the South of Ireland. In the North of Ireland the Friesian bull calves are making 30/40 pounds sterling. The price of cull cows has dropped dramatically as the demand in the factories up North has decreased because of the whole “horse dna” scare with greater supervision […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit outside Dungiven, Co. Derry, I scanned a herd of cows where routine hoof paring had been completed. A number of the cows presented with severe lameness and were bandaged for same. Indeed, some of these animals had been inseminated and the scan revealed embryonic death that occurred precisely 2 days earlier […]
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