Farmer Focus: Health challenges with newborn calves overcome
© Kathryn Mary Photography I’m not sure when the cut-off is for wishing people a Happy New Year, but as we’re all obeying the rules and seeing fewer people, it’s bound to be extended.
I hope we all have a good 2022. May it be a year of ever-increasing milk prices and shrinking input costs – wishful thinking.
Rory was born almost a year ago, and 2021 certainly passed very quickly. I’m sure time won’t go any more slowly as our boys grow up.
I said to someone recently that I would like to increase cow numbers. He rightly told me I won’t look back in years to come and think I spent too much time with my family.
See also: How to give dairy staff a better work-life balance
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Finding the correct work/life balance is more important than ever as Kathryn returns to her career as a primary school teacher.
With that in mind, some of our surplus heifers have been sold and are awaiting transport to their new robotic home in the next couple of weeks.
They’re not going far, and I’m excited to see how they do for their young and enthusiastic buyer as they start calving in February.
We’ve kept about 40 for ourselves to maintain production and get to our goal of a level profile and milking about 200 cows all year round.
With the herd still so young, all but a few of the initial Danish imports remain. So far, I’m very pleased with the heifers born here that have calved.
We’ve had some challenges in the past month with newborn calves. What was thought to be rotavirus turned out to be cryptosporidium, albeit too late for half a dozen of them.
We’ve never had any bother with either disease before. Touch wood, we seem to be over it now, thanks to our vets for getting to the bottom of it. They were certainly sharing our frustration.
As thoughts turn to spring and fertiliser plans, I’ve yet to order any. Reluctantly, we will need to get enough nitrogen for at least first cut, but with slurry and digestate available, hopefully we won’t need phosphate and potassium.
I suppose we could follow the current celebrity mantra of “re-wilding”, but in this area it might just mean rushes, thistles and the occasional burnt-out car.