McDONALD CLAN
we took advantage of some of the dry weather in January and spread a lot of slurry on grazing land on an out-farm.
One of my least favourite tasks on the farm — I put it right up there with picking stones — is our annual herd test, which we are doing this week.
It’s always really stressful; and that’s regardless of the result of the test.
It’s very difficult when you are trying to put stock of two different sizes up the cattle crush, i.e. cows and calves. When the test is over, we will hopefully scan all the cows; and, weather permitting, we will be able to start turning out a few in early March.
We always turn them out in a certain order. Cows in calf with the best bull calves will go out first. So obviously the best calves will have the best performance on grass so the longer we can make their grazing season, the better.
Next out will be the cows scanned not in calf, with their calves. The reason we turn them out at that stage is that we wean them earlier, when the calves are well settled and have the cows fat for May and June, which is traditionally the best time to sell a beef cow.
Then we start turning out the rest of them, with the incalf heifers the last to go out. I know it’s not best practice but, at turnout, we will set the stock, cows and calves, in small groups.
Hopefully, as the weeks go on, we will join up the groups and then end up with 50 cows and calves per group grazing a rotation of 7–8 paddocks.
Unlike dairy stock, suckler cows and calves tend to do a lot of walking after they are turned out, especially if ground and weather conditions are less than ideal. A large group of cows and calves could wipe out a paddock on one wet night.
Robin Talbot farms in partnership with his mother, Pam, and wife, Ann, in Ballacolla, Co. Laois.