Calf feeding is a pleasure with the new automatic system

We decided to stop trying to sow winter wheat a couple of weeks ago asa result of the very inclement weather conditions we have experienced this whole year, which has left land in an unworkable condition. Hopefully, this job can be re-started mid-January, weather permitting, and hopefully, too, we will reach our planned target acreage. At this stage, we are well behind. I don't think I have ever seen land so wet in my lifetime as it is at the moment.

That grain which is already sowed is progressing as expected to the extent that there is a nice green cover carpet over the fields.

The improvement in weather conditions this past couple of weeks has allowed us to work towards emptying the slurry stores. This is our job of the moment as we utilise whatever available time we have -- usually just a couple of hours during the day. The nutrients from slurry going into the land now at this time of year are very beneficial to the soil. It is being applied now while growth is practically dormant, but is active as a fertiliser and ready to be taken up at the earliest stages of growth. Applying slurry and FYM now during the pre-Christmas weeks has been farming practice for as long as I can remember -- weather and land permitting of course. It is the epitome of good farming practice and something that stupid environmental regulations have now eliminated.

We have all become victims of senseless rules and regulations which bear no relation to good and practical farming. You know, that email which Joe Barry included in his column recently said it all. It was brilliant.

As I have said so many times in this column, farmers are not disposed to destroying their land by travelling over it with heavy slurry equipment. It goes without saying, therefore, that we do not travel our land in soft conditions or in wet conditions apart from this current year when wet weather and farming by the calendar forced many to the point of desperation. The announcement of an extension to the closure date came too late, but was welcome nonetheless for those of us with land so wet we were sinking even as we walked through it.

Well, things are finally turning around on the home farm as the lads report a whole week when every calf born was female. Of these, one was from AI (the only one to date from a good number of AI straws used) while all the rest were the progeny of our own breeding bulls. One of our bulls in particular seems to sire mainly heifer calves.

They are currently researching the use of sexed semen and it would seem that, if done properly, this is a successful procedure. We have a serious shortage of female replacement stock -- a situation which has been ongoing for some years now and while we bought in some replacement stock last year this really is not an ideal way forward. Having said this, the replacement heifers bought last year were top-class stock. There was not a minute's trouble with any one of them. They all calved themselves and joined the milking herd as if they were reared here and then went on to produce to target yield. But we always produced our own stock and this is the way we would wish to continue.

The new facilities for the dairy herd are a godsend. Working with the herd is now a lot easier and, indeed, the workload has decreased considerably. Cows are happy because they no longer have to leave their nice warm shed to gather in a collecting yard exposed to the elements. They are under cover at all times and so exposure to stress has been minimised.

Calf feeding, too, is a pleasure with the new automatic system. It needed some adjustments this season and is now working better than ever. An ID system is in place whereby each calf can feed to his allowance ad-lib throughout the day. This is a system which facilitates the slow drinker, insofar as he can take all day to drink but he still gets his allowed quantity even if a few sucks at a time. The fast drinker gets nothing once his allowance has been used up. The calf's intake of milk is also adjusted as he gets older and he is weaned gradually so that there is no stress on the calf at weaning.

Washing and cleaning this system is also automatic with just a few bits needing manual checking. The feeder is programmed to wash itself at given times when it closes down and washes before re-starting again.

I remember, in the past, working with the automatic equipment of the time and finding it a nightmare to wash and clean.

Indeed, it was probably responsible for many of our ills in rearing calves because we didn't clean it often enough.

The lads are also trying out a couple of isolation pens at the moment. These are single pen units, but joined together in such a way that calves cannot touch each other to infect or re-infect each other. In this way, exposure to infection is minimised and, hopefully, calves will recover quicker.

- Oliver McDonnell
Independent.ie, December 2, 2008
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