Trial Shows Quality Grazing Has Greater Effect on Lamb Growth Than Trace Element Supplements

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A Farming Connect trial has shown a cost benefit of up to £3.36/head from supplementing lambs with trace elements post-weaning; however, grass availability and parasite control had the biggest influence on the performance of animals in the study.

Meirion Rees runs a flock of 2,000 Tregaron-type Welsh Mountain breeding ewes near Eglwyswrw, running ewes on hill land on the Preselis while fattening lambs on lowland acreage.

Lamb performance post-weaning is one of his biggest challenges; due to cobalt deficiency, so to maintain growth, he supplements with trace elements.

As a member of a Farming Connect sheep discussion group, he embarked on a trial to establish which form of supplementation works best in his system.

“I was keen to be involved because, with so many products on the market, it can be difficult to really know what works best in our own flock,’’ says Mr Rees, who farms with his parents.

Lambs were given either a vitamin B12 injection, a bolus containing cobalt, selenium and iodine, or drenched once or three times with a liquid supplement containing cobalt, selenium and vitamins, and their performance was monitored against a control group that had no supplementation.

All supplemented groups – apart from the group that were drenched only once– gained more weight than lambs that received no supplement.

Over the course of the 66-day trial, the growth rates were very similar in lambs given the bolus, B12 injection or drenched three times – at about 188g/day compared to the control and one dose of drench, where growth was around 168g/day.

Independent sheep specialist Kate Phillips, who oversaw the trial and analysed the data, says this showed that more continuous supplementation is needed if drenching with trace elements – particularly cobalt, as lambs need a daily supply to grow well and use their diet effectively.

The three doses of drench, at a cost per lamb of £0.56 for the product and labour, had the greatest cost benefit, at £3.36/lamb.

For the bolused lambs, the cost benefit was £3.13 and for the animals that had a shot of vitamin B12 the return on investment was £2.42.

Although there was a growth response to supplementation, the greatest improvement in growth rate was achieved when the lambs were introduced to silage aftermath in the first and second two weeks of the trial.

Irrespective of supplementation, DLWG rose from 68g/day in the first two weeks to 226 g/day over the next two weeks, including in the control group.

“Grass availability and parasite control had a greater influence on performance than any of the supplements,’’ says Mrs Phillips.

Lambs with a high worm burden were treated, and there was a jump in their growth rates. But investment in the supplements proved to be cost effective, she says, demonstrating the need for trace element supplements to optimise lamb growth on Mr Rees’ farm.

However, every individual farm situation will be different.

“The choice of supplement will depend on price and convenience for the farmer,’’ says Mrs Phillips.

Going forward, Mr Rees says he plans to continue comparing products to ensure he is getting the best results.

“All these products helped, so it’s a case of looking at what is cost-effective and the labour requirements involved,’’ he says.

He lambs outdoors from 1 March, and sells lambs both in the live market and direct to slaughter, achieving average deadweight of 19-20kg at R3L.

Mr Rees has made good use of Farming Connect services. He received advice on worm control and management through the Farming Connect Advisory Service, advice on grassland management and nutrient management planning.

This work included reviewing grazing strategies to help improve finishing rates and achieve better utilisation of grass, along with advice on winter forage crops from specialist consultants.

He has also used the Farming Connect mentoring scheme to learn more about benchmarking and EID from experienced farmers.

North Pembrokeshire Development Officer Rhiannon James said:

“Using a wide range of services through Farming Connect has helped Meirion gain a better understanding of the challenges on his farm. This has enabled him to make better informed management decisions that can help improve animal performance and the productivity of the business.”

Dairy Farm’s Switch to Rearing Replacements Shows Clear Benefits

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 Welsh dairy farm is taking back control of future herd health and performance by rearing its own heifer replacements.

The Jarman family had operated a flying herd policy for 12 years, purchasing all their replacements since first producing milk at Gwern Hefin, near Bala, where they had previously run a traditional beef and sheep system. Those cows were all inseminated to beef sires.

The Jarmans are now making the switch from an all-year-round (AYR) calving system to a spring milk profile, to simplify the system and to maximise their farm’s grazing potential.

To inform that change and to move towards a system of breeding their own replacements, they have worked with Farming Connect, with input from consultant Andy Dodd, of the WhiteAvon Consultancy, as a focus site project.

Although the cost of rearing replacement females varies from operation to operation, Mr Dodd calculates that it typically costs £1,141 from birth to calving at 24 months.

He told farmers attending a recent Farming Connect open day at Gwern Hefin that there were clear benefits to a dairy farm by breeding its own replacements.

“A farm can breed the type of animal it needs, not make do with what might be second-rate heifers from other herds,’’ said Mr Dodd.

“Surplus heifers that come onto a market are not generally going to be the seller’s best animals, because they will want to keep those for their own herd.’’

For that reason, the replacement rate is typically higher in a flying herd – generally around 26-28%, he added.

Farmers are less in control of genetics when they purchase stock; by breeding their own heifers, they can produce a cow that fits with their system, bringing uniformity to the herd.

Although the Jarmans had generated a good secondary income by selling beef animals from their flying herd, the value of beef animals from their spring herd would be lower because they now have smaller-stature cows.

“Beef calf values from grazing-type breeds are typically lower than progeny from all-year-round calving herds,’’ Mr Dodd pointed out.

To allow for a more rapid transition to block calving, the Jarmans bought 128 heifers in two batches from Ireland, and served these to sexed semen to reduce the number of dairy bull calves; the genetics centre on Friesian cross Jerseys. Of the 62 synchronised and inseminated this year, 42 produced dairy heifers.

A proportion of the existing herd has also been left open for a period, to move in line with a spring milk profile. In 2023, sexed semen will be used on cows, too.

Gwynfor Jarman, who farms with his wife, Leisa, and daughter, Gweno, said by breeding their own heifers, they were able to produce genetically superior animals.

“We have control of all of the usual traits including better feet, legs and udders, but it also allows for uniformity across the herd.’’

He added that a flying herd can be a risky business in terms of biosecurity, too, even when buying in cattle that have clean health records and that are from reliable sources.

“Buying cattle from outside sources always carries a risk of introducing diseases into a herd,’’ said Mr Jarman.

The herd replacement rate is currently 25%. “We hope to get that down to 20% by breeding better animals,’’ Mr Jarman added.

Calving starts on 20 February to match the hill farm’s grass growth and to minimise the seasonality penalties associated with calving earlier. All heifer-rearing is outsourced to a contract rearer.

Grassland management and rotational grazing are at the heart of the new system at Gwern Hefin. Mr Jarman said he was inspired to convert the farm to extensive grazing after attending a Farming Connect Master Grass course.

“That course really opened up my eyes to what we could achieve,’’ he said.

In 2021, the grazing platform grew 13t of dry matter (DM)/ha (5.3t DM/acre) from a fertiliser input of 225kgN/ha – Gweno measures the grass weekly during the growing season.

“We have had our soils tested through Farming Connect, and we don’t need any P and K, other than what we produce on-farm,’’ said Mr Jarman.

The farm has a grazing platform of 77ha, and is currently stocked at 2.85lu a hectare. Investment in infrastructure to support the new system includes a 36-point rotary to replace its 10/20 parlour.

The herd yields an average of 5,700 litres per cow annually, with a 12-month rolling butterfat average of 4.72% and protein at 3.73%.

By utilising more of the grass grown in combination with changing cow breed, Mr Jarman said he can reduce his costs and increase the stocking rate, while complying with the new agricultural pollution control regulations.

“By better utilising grass, there is not only more of it, but the quality is higher,’’ he said.
Farming Connect is delivered by Menter a Busnes and Lantra Wales and funded by the Welsh Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

Selective Dry Cow Therapy – What Is It and Should I Use It on My Farm?

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Take home messages:

  • Blanket dry cow therapy should be considered an unacceptable practice. This is in line with the Wales Animal Health and Welfare Framework’s recommendation of ‘promoting the minimising of routine use of antibiotics’.
  • Selective dry cow therapy is straightforward to implement on farm and will reduce your use of antibiotics. If you have a high incidence rate of mastitis in your herd, veterinary advice should be sought.
  • Teat sealants are a useful tool to reduce the likelihood of quarters which are healthy at dry off becoming infected in the dry period and consequently should reduce your mastitis rate in the next lactation without having to use antibiotics.

The dry period is crucial in the lactation process. It is the period after lactation that allows for the repair of the udder lining and subsequent optimal milk production in the next lactation. Within the repair process, milk secretion dries up, the udder lining gets smaller and reduces activity and a keratin plug forms in the teat canal.

The dry period is not just utilised for repair of the udder but also to clear up any mammary infections. Previous cases of clinical or subclinical mastitis can be treated and new infections prevented. Prevention of new infections from environmental bacteria in the dry period is imperative as these can become clinical cases after calving. It may seem odd that there is still a risk from bacteria getting into the teat whilst there is a keratin plug present. However, the formation of the keratin plug may be delayed, and cows are more susceptible to infection in the initial period after drying off. Furthermore, in high yielding dairy cattle, milk leakage can occur meaning that the teat is not effectively sealed, these animals are reported to be four times more likely to get an infection.

Blanket dry cow therapy (BDCT) has been a standard method for both treatment and prevention in the dry period. This method uses antibiotics in all quarters of all cows in the herd at drying off. During the dry period, higher doses can be used than when the cow is in milk and the flow of milk at milking will not flush the antibiotic out. However, by blanket treating the herd with antibiotic dry cow therapy there will be many cows in the herd that are treated with antibiotics when they don’t need it. This is considered prophylactic use of antibiotics and as a practice should be discouraged. Antimicrobial resistance is a real problem in human and veterinary medicine and we are running out of options. Therefore, the whole of the agricultural sector needs to do its best to reduce the use of antibiotics as much as possible, without impacting animal health and welfare. Furthermore, minimising the routine use of antibiotics is a key component of the Wales Animal Health and Welfare Framework. The industry needs to start planning what will be done in place of BDCT and at present selective dry cow therapy (SDCT) and use of teat sealants is considered a sensible alternative. An added financial incentive should also be realised by reduced expenditure on unnecessary antibiotic treatments.

What is selective dry cow therapy?

SDCT is the treatment of cows with antibiotics based on an assessment of the presence of an intra-mammary infection before drying off – usually determined through somatic cell counts. This method can either be administered at the cow or quarter level, though it is likely more easily implemented at the cow level in practice.

What should be done about the cows that don’t receive antibiotics and how do we prevent any new infections during the dry period?

Teat sealants with or without antibiotics are becoming more common in dry cow management, with internal sealants being favoured over external sealants. Internal sealants are infused into the teat canal and act as a barrier to any invading environmental bacteria. The sealant is a paste which will stay intact in the teat in the presence of milk and is stripped out at the first suckling or stripping out post calving. When somatic cell counts are low before dry off and there is no history of mastitis in the previous lactation there has been shown to be no benefit to using antibiotic treatment over teat sealants alone. Further to this, there are a number of research studies which have shown that the use of teat sealants in the dry period reduces the prevalence of mastitis in the subsequent lactation. One study reported up to 48% reduction, compared to cows that receive no treatment. Based on this evidence, it seems likely that using teat sealants within a selective dry cow therapy programme will be easily implemented into common practice in dairy farming in the future, with no anticipated negative effects on animal health or welfare.

When inserting either teat sealants or intra-mammary antibiotics, care must always be taken to follow manufacturers’ guidelines and to minimise the risk of introduction of environmental bacteria into the teat. Clean gloves should always be worn, the teat properly cleaned and hygiene kept to the highest standard. This is even more important when using teat sealants without concurrent antibiotic treatment. If not completed properly, the risk of an intramammary infection is increased. The nozzle containing either the antibiotic or teat sealant should only be partially inserted into the teat as demonstrated in Box 1.

How can I implement SDCT on my farm?

Before implementation you and your vet will need to decide on strict selection criteria. As previously mentioned, the most common selection tool used is SCC. The current advised cut off is 200,000 cells/ mL. This should be discussed with your vet who may recommend an alternative based on your individual herd parameters and history. Any cows that have SCC equal to or over this level should receive antibiotic treatment and a teat sealant and those with less and no history of clinical mastitis should only receive teat sealants. Use of SCC as a selection method and the consideration of incidents of clinical mastitis in the previous lactation will give a fairly good accuracy for selecting uninfected cows to receive teat sealants alone, although this could be improved on through other methods.

Recent research in Canada and the USA has evaluated on-farm culture system to detect the presence of bacteria in the milk. Although these systems would require a clean ‘lab’ space on the farm or your vet to culture samples, they do give results quickly and are also more accurate for detecting cows that require SDCT than the SCC selection tools. It is likely that methods such as this will be developed further in the future and become more common on-farm.

Box 2 outlines a suggested example of a SDCT programme that could be instigated on-farm. Selection criteria for the programme would depend on the method chosen to detect the presence of infection at dry off. Each programme will need to be farm specific to meet your individual requirements and could be instigated at whole cow or quarter level, although whole cow level has previously been recommended. Advice should be sought from your vet or a suitably qualified person on how to set up and implement this programme.

What should I do if I have a high percentage of cows with SCC >200,000 cells/mL?

On farms with a high prevalence of mastitis and where many cows have SCC greater than 200,000 cells/ mL at dry off, the majority may still need antibiotics and so, there will be limited room to reduce antibiotic use at this time. On these farms the overall herd management should be looked at first and any areas for improvement targeted to reduce the mastitis prevalence. Practices such as improvement of housing and udder cleanliness milking hygiene and milking equipment being in good repair may be a useful place to start. Disease management should always involve discussions with your vet. Once the cases of mastitis in the herd are reduced, use of antibiotics within the dry period should be required less and a SDCT regime could be implemented.

SDCT in practice: Farming Connect work at Tyreglwys Demonstration Farm

Work at one of our Demonstration Farms Tyreglwys has been investigating the use of SDCT and teat sealants alongside the farm’s vet. A strict cell count cut off of less than 120,000 in 3 monthly recordings before dry off and no history of mastitis in that period was used as a selection method for teat sealants alone. This selection criterion identified 80% of the herd to be eligible for teat sealants alone. The antibiotic usage for the dry period was reduced and a saving of £7.40 per cow was made. More information on this project is available here.

Improving your Cow Performance with the Herdwatch Milk module

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Milk Recording & Cow Performance

Milk Recording is the key to achieving successful safer Selective Dry Cow Therapy. It is essential to record one month before dry off or 60 days before the start of calving to assess the SCC of the herd, which allows you to monitor cure rates over the dry period.

Working with your Vet or advisor, you should be aiming for > 85% cure rate and Dry period new infection rates of < 10%. Milk recording should be carried out least 4 times a year – the more you do, the more information you have and in turn the safer the SDCT is for your cows.

Along with SCC management, improving udder health and reducing the usage of antibiotics, milk recording provides excellent detail on cow performance that can be easily accessed and interpreted within Herwdatch.

Interpretation of milk recording data and the information that it provides will have a critical role to play in the development of breeding plans on farm in the future. The number of herds milk recording in Ireland is low relative to our international counterparts and needs to increase significantly. Its importance will become even more critical as blanket dry cow therapy is phased out.

Using the milk recording and performance dashboards in Herdwatch you will be able to easily select best cows for dairy replacements improving EBI overall on the farm, selecting culls and making sure problem cows are not being bred and in turn reducing SCC. Selective breeding will increase your EBI, solids, milk reduction, fertility as well as having a SDCT process. Combining and analysing milk recording information in Herdwatch can easily be done and help to make better on-farm decisions.

Hazell Mullins Top Tips for SDCT

  • Eat breakfast – Don’t be hangry!
  • Be organised – lay out everything on a table or other side of herring bone
  • Spotless parlour before starting
  • Gloves – if possible new gloves for each SDCT cow
  • Teat score – make sure surface of the teat is smooth
  • Bucket of cotton pads in surgical spirts or else remove wipes from packets and place in surgical spirit
  • Do not place sealers in warm water to soften – Pseudomonas risk
  • Stand in clean yard for 30 mins
  • Remember – treat your cows like surgical patients – embrace your inner surgeon!

Dry Off/SDCT Management in Herdwatch

By using Herdwatch, you will be able to access all of the information needed to select cows to be dried off, within the Dry Off Management feature in Herdwatch which gives you a detailed dashboard which includes cows in herd, average herd SCC, cows suitable for SDCT, cows to dry, cows dried, milk record and more.

A simplified list of what cows Herdwatch suitable for SDCT (always check with your Vet) as below:

These lists are all customisable with the use of filters, so you can change highest SCC threshold to 50,000 and latest SCC threshold to 50,000 and expected calving date to 15 of February 2022 to just have a list of cows with this criteria.

Herdwatch is fully compliant with all quality assurance standards in Ireland & the UK and allows farmers to record all remedy usage, register calves, cattle movements, breeding records, map your farm and more on a simple to use app.

You too can join Hazell and over 17,000 other happy farmers saving time on farm paperwork and managing their farms more efficiently by downloading the Herdwatch app today.

Beef Sector Efficiency Programme Beep-S 2022

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To further increase economic and environmental efficiency in the suckler herd through better quality data on herd performance, supporting decision making on farm and support of best practice in welfare management.

With the submission deadline fast approaching, we have put together some info below on the BEEP-S Scheme that may be useful. We highly recommend using Herdwatch to input your weights. Herdwatch offers a quick, simple and secure way of sending them to ICBF so that you are fully covered.

What does it involve and who is eligible?
• The programme is open to all suckler beef farmers who commit to completing the
mandatory action required within the duration of the programme, optional welfare
enhancement actions are also available for additional support.
• Payment will be on beef breed (dam and sire) animals born in the herd between 1st July 2021 and 30th June 2022. Applications open on agfood.ie until 25th April 2022.

Additional information

• Grant aid of up to €8,100 available per suckler farmer
• Up to €90 for the first 10 calf/cow pairs and €80 for the remainder up to a maximum
of 100 pairs/herd
• Farmers who were in previous BEEP scheme must reapply if they wish to participate
• Mandatory measure: Weighing of live calf and dam and submission of weight
recording data to ICBF as outlined in the T&C documents
• Optional Measure 1: Vaccination or meal feeding at weaning as per T&C and or;
• Optional Measure 2: Fecal Egg testing as per T&C
• The Mandatory measure must be completed in full to be eligible for any aid for the
programme

Key dates

• Eligible Animals: Beef breed animals born between 1st July 2021 and 30th June 2022
• Applications: open till 25th April 2022
• Submission of weights: up to 1st November 2022
• Payments will be made in December 2022.

Can I weigh animals in groups e.g. weigh a group of animals in a trailer on a weighbridge?

No, animals must be weighed individually using a weighing platform in a cattle crush. Weighing must be carried out on your farm. Mart weights or any other weights recorded off-farm will not be accepted for BEEP-S.

Can I use my own weighing scales?

Yes, you can use your own scales and record the weights yourself. The weighing scales must be registered with ICBF before you submit weights.

How do I register my weighing scales?

This can be done by logging into the ICBF website (www.icbf.com) with your username and password. Under the ‘Services’ dropdown, select ‘BEEP-S’ and then select ‘View/Register Own Scales’. Here you enter the:

  • Make/model of the scales
  • Year of purchase
  • Serial number

If I don’t own a weighing scales, how will I weigh my animals?

  • A Rental model weighing scales – Scales are available for farmers to rent from the BEEP network (www.mybeep.ie)
  • Owned, borrowed or using a third party service providers’ scales –This is where a farmer can use their own scales or one belonging to a third party. Participants using owned, borrowed or using a third party service providers weighing scales will have to pre-register these scales with ICBF as per the T & C’s.
  • FRS Weighing Technician Service – is a nationwide service available to any farmer wishing to comply with the BEEP scheme. An FRS Weighing Technician will come to your farm with a registered scales and complete weighing. All you need to do is submit the weighing results onto the BEEP database within 7 days of the animal being weighed.

How do I submit weights to ICBF after weighing my animals?

You can enter weights using:

  • Farm Software (Herdwatch) – Weights recorded through Herdwatch will automatically be sent to ICBF which means you will get the benefit of better reporting from ICBF. Herdwatch is fully approved by ICBF to provide this integration free of charge to our members.
  • ICBF web-site- You can record weights through a desktop/laptop computer through www.icbf.com Under the ‘Services’ dropdown, select ‘BEEP’ and then select ‘Record Weights’.
  • Paper Forms– an official paper will also be available from www.icbf.com

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that weights are successfully submitted to ICBF?

In all instances it is the farmer’s responsibility to ensure that weights for your animals are recorded properly and submitted to ICBF within 7 days of the weighing event. This is especially relevant where you are availing of a technician service.

Download Herdwatch now to get fast weight recording and automatic average daily gains or call us on 050534400 for more info.

Farm Smart: Modernising and Digitalising Dairy Farm Management in Lockerbie, Scotland

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Scottish dairy farmer, George Booth, lives and works on his family farm in Lockerbie after moving up from North Yorkshire in 2006. He is a fourth-generation dairy farmer but his family had been farming for decades before that. George farms in partnership with his Mum and Dad, and occasionally his younger brother. He also has a sister who is a herd manager in New Zealand, so farming definitely is in the blood.

“We run a Holstein milking herd of around 140 and another 100 youngstock which we rear ourselves on 142 acres. We also winter 160 Swaledale sheep every year October to late March, which works very well. We silage 95 acres twice a year for fodder and have 32 acres of spring wheat for wholecrop.”

“I would be lost without Herdwatch now. I would absolutely hate going back to the old system of paper records.”

On getting started with Herdwatch, George said “I saw Herdwatch advertised on the farming forums on Facebook two years ago. After joining the Arla 360 scheme, which is Arla’s highest animal and climate standards, we needed an easier way for record keeping and we gave it a go. It was extremely easy to sign up and to get started with the demo, I was signed up and trialling the app within the hour.”

George adds “We have made considerable investments on the farm since we bought and Herdwatch was another step towards modernising our farm management. We started off with a new parlour and extended the old cubicle shed before we brought the cows up from the old farm in 2006. The year after, we built a purpose built 70 cubicle shed for the youngstock along with a new pit for the wholecrop.”

“In 2018, we modernised the calf rearing side as we were struggling to get our calves to our aimed daily weight gain and were weaning them at 10-11 weeks in an old milking byre with individual pens. We installed an automatic milk feeder machine with new hygiene stations and we now group our calves from a week old in two pens big enough for 20 calves in each. It has been the best decision we have ever made as it has greatly reduced sickness in the calves by around 80% and our daily weight gain is now over 1kg.”

“My next step is to do more around breeding management within the app as it also allows us to record our heats, serves and scans.”

On recording medicine usage and feeds for their quality assurance, George told us “we always used to keep our records in the paperback medicine books and always found it a big task to keep records up to date. It was almost unworkable when searching for a treatment for a certain animal. Now, I simply scan the medicine as soon as I get it from the vet to put it into the Herdwatch app. It’s great because I can easily look back at any animal, see what treatment it got and when it got it, helping to paint a complete picture of its medicine usage.”

On preparing for their inspections, “I find Herdwatch incredibly useful for farm inspections, it doesn’t matter where you are, all the needed reports are there on your phone when you need them.  I input all feed purchases, medicine usage and even our red diesel so we can track our carbon footprint. It is so much easier than having to pull together records from bits of paper or having to ring around different companies to see how much we have used.”

George says he “would be lost without Herdwatch now. I would absolutely hate going back to the old system of paper records. Herdwatch has transformed the way we farm and we are saving a lot of time by going digital on all our record keeping. We also have the security of knowing it is all safely stored in the cloud. We can look back at the end of each month and review our feed and medicine usage and see where we can improve. I have recommended the app to a lot of other Arla 360 members for these reasons.”

“My next step is to do more around breeding management within the app as it also allows us to record our heats, serves and scans. It then sends you handy reminders if you want to do a second serve and ultimately gives you a neat due to calf list so there is no guessing about what cows are due when. I can also do my calf registrations in seconds in the app. We use sexed semen on a lot of the herd, mostly Holstein on milkers, Holstein or Angus on the replacement heifers and Belgian Blue on those we don’t want to breed off.” George said.

On the support he gets from Herdwatch, George said “the Herdwatch team are great, they are very quick to get back to me and resolve any query. If I have a question when out and about, I just use the message centre in the app as it’s so handy. I am always firing new ideas at them for the app, and they always thank me for the new ideas which I think is good. I’m really looking forward to getting going on their new NextGen app which will have a lot of those new ideas built into it.”

Transitioning From Playing Professional Rugby to Full-Time Farming

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Former Irish rugby international Rory Best has embraced the farming life after bringing his professional rugby career to an end in 2019.

After 124 appearances for the Ireland international rugby team, the Armagh native returned to the family farm near Poyntzpass to help his father, John, and his brother, Simon, in the running of the farm.

Rory spoke about the transition back into farming after 15 years of senior rugby with Ulster and Ireland.

He explained: “The transition from rugby to full-time farming has been reasonably good. I’ve really enjoyed it. Even though the lockdown period, in account of Covid-19, was really difficult for everyone, I think for me, personally, transitioning at this time meant I had no other distractions.

“I wasn’t being pulled to events to do with rugby. This, in turn, meant I could focus on farming and getting work done around the farm. Basically, it gave me time to readjust and get fully involved in the family-run enterprise once again.”

“I have enjoyed it getting back into it; it’s something I have loved doing since I was ‘no-age’.

Pedigree Aberdeen Angus Herd

Rory went on to talk about the system in place on the farm and about his pedigree Aberdeen Angus herd and how dairy herds are keen to use Angus bulls.

He said: “We could be running – at any one time – from 140 to 150 head of cattle.

“We calve the cows down in March and we are try to get them away [the calves] the following July or August, as young bulls; the majority of which end up in dairy herds.

It’s a good system; it works well for us to calve in very early in spring to get them onto their feet and out onto grass as soon as possible.

“To be successful we’ve got to get and keep our fertility high and that’s a big thing for us. If we can get a calf a year from every cow and get them weaned at ‘half body weight’ going into the housing period we will be happy.

“Ease of calving is a big thing for us. A lot of our bulls go into the dairy herd because dairy farmers don’t want to be pulling big calves out and we don’t want that either here on our farm.”

Use of Herdwatch

The Herdwatch app has been “invaluable in the day-to-day running of the farm” according to Rory.

He added: “I chose to go with Herdwatch because the phone is something you have with you at all times. I’m able to pull the phone out at any time to check stock and check for anything that needs to be done – such as weight recording.

Ultimately, it’s the simplest way to keep records. for example. You’re not writing down on scraps of paper, it’s whoever has got the phone – they register any information that needs to be recorded.

“The big change is that it’s done then and there. It’s straightforward and, for me, when I was still playing rugby, I was able to pull the phone out of my pocket and keep in the loop and get jobs done.

“One major benefit is the weight recording. It is really important for us and the great thing is that my father and I can do it together. When we are weighing our calves, we can input the weights into the app and it gives you the daily live weight gain for each one.”

Rory added: “The calves are registered and tagged straightaway, so that we don’t forget about it.

“If you have any issues you can phone Herdwatch. They can sort it out remotely as well and talk you through what you need to do, so for me the support you get is invaluable.”