On a farm visit in Co Derry this week a client revealed that of the first 97% cows that calved he had 86 Friesian heifer calves. This is in his opinion created many advantages – opened the window for use of Friesian AI. Pre breed scan conducted each year identified does cows that were not […]
Read MoreIn the North of Ireland currently it is not allowed to slaughter male calves as part of certification for dairy under the Red Tractor programme. On a number of farms visited this week in the north, farmers have resorted to the use of sex semen to generate replacements for the dairy herd, then the use […]
Read MoreA farm visit to conduct a Pre-breed scan for a client in Co. Laois who has both a spring and autumn calving programme revealed the following: Removal of the winter milk bonus for the month of October has meant that he has been driven into breeding cows in January/February for his autumn calving season and […]
Read MoreOn a prebreed scan today for an autumn calving programme involving a total herd of 370 cows in milk today, split between spring and autumn calving, the client informed me that his herd was currently producing an extra 2 litre per cow per day. He has split the dairy herd on the basis of […]
Read MoreIn our travels this week, we are encountering farmers wanting empty cows scanned for suitability for breeding to calve next autumn. With the current market situation where factories are not taking in empty cows from farms, farmers have resorted to selling these animals through marts where one client bought in 35 cows at an average […]
Read MoreCurrently we have a demand by dairy farmers to identify cows in terms of suitability for the use of sexed semen. The Smart Scan technology from ReproDoc enables you to identify the reproductive status of your cows using additional bioinformatic data to enable us to accurately identify the best suited for sexed semen. It […]
Read MoreThe negative impact of the 2018 summer drought on silage stocks has been significantly reduced by the mild weather in December and January. The silage intake required for cow maintenance has been reduced because of seasonally elevated temperatures. A significant concern has been the concomitant increase in cases of pneumonia and associated viral and bacterial […]
Read MoreThe hum of milk parlours will gradually cease for 6 to 8 weeks in over 80% of dairy farms in the southern half of Ireland. There is an incessant decrease in winter milk production which is primarily seen as a high cost system with low returns. There has been a continuous exit from winter milk […]
Read MoreThis year will be remembered for the challenges presented in farming because of seasonal extremes in weather. A wet spring with delayed turnout created fodder shortages with associated increase in cost of milk and beef production. A similar cost increase arose because of fodder shortage due to the arid climate presented this summer. In contrast, […]
Read MoreThe past two weeks post the ploughing fiasco has been an Indian summer. This has resulted in excellent grass growth rates, conservation of late cuts of silage, reseeding, application of slurry and a significant improvement in the psychological well-bring of farmers. This past year has been extremely mentally testing primarily for farmers in our industry. […]
Read More
085 858 1985
