On farm calls in county Derry today, a client revealed that of 97 cows in calf using sexed semen, 17 were carrying male calves on the basis of smart scan technology. In contrast, 80 maiden heifers were scanned pregnant and in calf to sexed semen and only 2 were carrying male calves. You might ask […]
Read MoreA question that arises on many farms is health issues centering around young calves. As we are well aware, the ability to supply sufficient colostrum and the quality of this colostrum dictates the future ability of the calf to tolerate the risk of health disorders in the future. Major consideration is the ability of calves […]
Read MoreOn calls in County Clare today, reveal pedigree Charolais and Limousin breeders presenting cattle for reproductive assessment. These breeders would traditionally have cattle presented for assessment for superovulation and embryo transfers programmes from months of November through March each year. Discussions with breeders here in County Clare revealed that sale prices of pedigree stock do […]
Read MoreColostrum fed by bottle is preferable in that the suckling effect activates the esophageal groove and ensures the colostrum gets into the correct stomach being the abomasum and not the rumen. When calves are stomach tubed the colostrum goes into the rumen which reduces the ability of the calf to absorb immunoglobulins. Therefor the second […]
Read MoreA major problem with dry cow fresh cow transition management is the ultimate quality of the colostrum produced by the cow immediately after calving. This can be of inferior quality because of the cow during the dry cow transition phase. A simple procedure would be to use a refractometer which uses small sample of colostrum. […]
Read MoreThe price of powder milk has gone up by over €60 per tonne – this has egged the question as to weather we use powder milk or whole milk for rearing calves. In my opinion, the risk of Johne’s infection by feeding whole milk to calves places a major question on the use of […]
Read MoreOn a farm visit to Flan Enright in Ballynacally Co Clare. Flan informed me that we had identified 6 cows carrying twins in his herd of 40 suckler cows last year. All cows carrying twins had twins. The fact that he used ScanSmart from ReproDoc ensured that he had accurate aging of pregnancies and accurate […]
Read MoreDairy farms in the Leitrim region have both grass-based winter milk production systems. They focus on Holstein dairy cows with genetic strain focused on high volumes of milk production with genetic component delivering on high solid production. Farm fragmentation and marginal soil types with relatively high rainfall and longer winters lend themselves to a year […]
Read MoreOn a farm call outside Newry where a dairy farmer presented cows for SmartScan evaluation of reproductive performance. SmartScan revealed the following; Cows which had been inseminated while pregnant Cows inseminated at a time other than been in heat Cows been inseminated when they were not cycling or unfit for insemination This farm was using […]
Read MoreOn calls here in Co Antrim today where clients are presenting maiden heifers with the possibility of using sexed semen. A pre-breed scan on maiden heifers on one farm identified significant reproductive problems which rendered these animals as group unfit for use of sexed semen. Some of the heifers were cycling but because of the […]
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