Redwater cases the only blot on what has been an ideal spring dairy landscape

The last five weeks of glorious weather remind me of the line about ‘the merry month of May’ from The Rocky Road to Dublin. Having happy cows out grazing in fields of lush green grass makes life easier. But as someone once told me, when things are going well, that’s the time to look out. I found this out for myself recently as suspected Redwater cases claimed two cows from my herd within a week.

Redwater was common enough in cattle years ago and was associated with older, rough pastures. My two cows went down very quickly, and even though they got blood transfusions, it wasn’t enough to save them.

I haven’t found out what caused it and I just hope that it was an isolated case. I am watching cows very closely for any drop in milk production or any other indications that they are off form.

Apart from that it has been a busy and productive time. Breeding kicked off on April 20 and at the end of three weeks, 90 cows and heifers were submitted. There was an 85pc submission rate for the cows and 100pc for the heifers.

The teaser bulls with the chinballs certainly worked hard and without fail. They were in from day one.

The teaser with the cows certainly loved milking times as he lay down outside the collecting yard for a rest until milking was over.

It was a pleasure to work with the heifers this year as I brought them home to the milking platform for the three weeks. They were in two paddocks close to the parlour and were easily visible.

They were all submitted within the first three weeks, including two out of the 22 receiving estrumate to bring them into heat. They all received sexed semen. This is my first time to use it. I will work hard with the April and May calvers to get them served as quickly as possible. All cows finished calving last week.

First cut

By the time you read this, our firstcut silage should be in the pit as it was cut last Tuesday.

I got three grass samples tested and they all had sugar levels between 4.5–5. The nitrogen levels were also low at between 10 and 50. Fertiliser was on for just six weeks and the good sunshine helped to use up the nitrogen.

Grass has really taken off in the past two weeks. Along with the first cut last week I included three paddocks (2.7ha). This brought my farm cover down to a more manageable level of 612. The cover/ LU stands at 149 and I am now stocked at 4.12LU/ha. In the past month I reseeded two paddocks (2.1ha). Conditions were ideal.

I burned off, ploughed, powerharrowed, levelled, sowed and rolled. The grass seed used was a two-variety mix of abergain and abermagic. Lime and 10-10-20 fertiliser were also applied. Dare I say it, some rain would really help reseeds in this part of the country.

A Grass10 meeting was held on Zoom last Monday. The emphasis was to walk the farm regularly, keep covers at 1400 and take out surpluses for bales immediately. For the next month with such rapid growth, this will be the main challenge.

The milking cows are currently producing 29 litres at 3.57pc BF, 3.23pc PR, 4.84 lactose giving 2kg

The two cows went down very quickly and even though they got blood transfusions, it wasn’t enough to save them