My first call entailed a farm visit to Stonefield, Ballinlough, Co. Meath. The road of 1.5 miles from Ballinlough to Stonefield is a crater whereby travelling more than 15 miles per hour would entail damage to tyres and wheel rims. I have never encountered such a dangerous road and we could definitely consider this one […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit in Co. Derry we had a split call between an outside and home farm where maiden heifers were bred on the two locations. The pregnancy rate on the maiden heifers on the home location was excellent with 95% of a group of 35 heifers in calf for a six week breeding […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit outside Kells, Co. Meath a client presented a suckler herd which he was failing to detect heats. The major underlying problem with the herd was last September and October the cows had insufficient body condition prior to calving and subsequently went into deep anoestrus. At this stage, they were just in […]
Read MoreScanning cows in Bushmills, Co. Antrim revealed that uterine involution was severely impaired in a large group of freshly calved cows. The client informed me that this group of cows had experienced a setback with moulds in silage during the dry cow period. A number of cows slipped pregnancies and after calving had severe setbacks […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit a client had synchronised a batch of heifers on 2 separate occasions. He introduced a stock bull out of frustration 14 weeks after he started his breeding programme, less than 50% of his heifers were in calf greater than 23 days. Body condition of these heifers was very poor. Some of […]
Read MoreOn a number of farm visits we had to scan cows as part of a larger project. This project involves scanning cows that are freshly calved between 14 and 22 days. Many of the farms visited would not scan their cows at this stage of calving. The number of problematic cows encountered was far greater […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit in Co. Waterford a client presented cows that were running with a stock bull for 8 weeks. He had started A.I. for a period of 4 weeks. He was unsure of the reproductive status of the herd. Scanning the cows revealed that many of the eligible cows were anoestrus and this […]
Read MoreThe month of February has brought longer days, emergence of snowdrops and a green carpet of grass as one travels the countryside. The winter to date has been relatively mild, which has had a positive effect on the demand for scarce feed reserves. Stocks for silage have been exhausted on many farms. The transport of […]
Read MoreVisiting clients in Co. Cork highlighted events taking place on the green field site for grass based milk production in Co. Kilkenny. The clients informed me that the calving season has begun with freshly calved cows put out to grass. However, with the harsh weather of late, there is no housing for these freshly calved […]
Read MoreJohnes Disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium Avium Paratuberculosis (MAPs), a distant relative to the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. The disease is a contagious, progressive bacterial infection that restricts the absorption of nutrients. Clinical signs are 1. long lasting diarrhoea and 2. extreme weight loss despite maintaining appetite. Long Incubation Period Animals usually become […]
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