Paula Hynes: Resilient by name, resilient by nature - our homebred AI bull

Rathard Resilient's dam Rathard Dandy Blossom, having just calved in February on her third lactation

It has been a week of excitement and sickness with the dreaded flu raising its ugly head in our household. Becky was the first to get it - a bad sore throat, aches and pains, temperature and sinus infections. 

It quickly spread throughout the house, with Pete being the only one escaping. I really struggled, but with no other choice, I dosed myself up with what I could and kept going. 

It was a busy week on the road for me with the usual school runs and feed collections for the wide variety of animals and also getting the last bit and pieces for Becky and Grace's project as they headed for the next stage of the Certified Irish Angus school's competition in Croke Park.

Every time I thought my list was completed, there would be something else added, but we eventually got there. The weather hasn’t made life any easier, we’re still bringing cows in at 9 o'clock every night. 

It is getting really tiring now, and the cows are fed up as well. It's just so important to get grass into them, and they are milking well, to be fair, but the damp, wet, and mucky conditions are exhausting at this stage. The countdown is well and truly on for our few days off in the middle of April.

Some of the show heifers have been brought back indoors in preparation for the coming season.

Becky and Georgie are very excited about the prospect of starting already, so a family meeting was called to discuss the arrangements and make plans. 

Thankfully, with the Easter holidays upon us, there will be plenty of work done and plenty of heifers being handled every day, and when school resumes, I will have the task of keeping them right.

I do enjoy having the show heifers in, even though there is a lot of work attached to them; they are like children and love the chats, hugs and lots of attention. 

Becky has a rota made out so that everything is done to the letter. The show heifers love having their baths and their tails washed; they are probably better looked after than myself!

A few of the heifers that may go to Emerald Expo have got a pre-clip already to make sure their coat and skin will be 100% for the first show.

Becky tackled the pre-clipping herself this year for the first time, and I must say she did an outstanding job for her first attempt. I have been on to her for a while to try it and she finally plucked up the courage to do it. 

The more she does it, the more her confidence will grow as she is the sort who likes to do everything and is very much a perfectionist.

I see a lot of myself in her when I was that age; when I was at horses full time, I used drive everyone mad about the way things had to be done. You'll be glad to hear I am a lot more chilled out now though! 

The show halters have been brought back out and cleaned, and the show box restocked with everything we need. I like to have it all got before the shows start as at least you know you have it, and some products are actually hard enough to get at short notice. Preparation is key.

Our home-bred AI bull

Having focused on breeding and genetics over the last decade and really getting to grips with good cow families in our herd, we are delighted to have a bull on the ICBF Dairy GeneIreland panel this year. 

Rathard Resilient FR96262 is out of a third lactation cow from our Blossom cow family; she's a 267 EBI cow that produced 471kg of milk solids on an SCC of 49 in her secon d lactation. 

The Blossom cow family has been really productive for us; the Resilient great grandam is on her tenth  lactation and calved in February again this year, while his grandam is also still in the herd, having produced 537kg of milk solids in her last lactation on 299 days.

It’s important that bulls have a good name, as the world came out of the covid pandemic last year, we felt Resilient was an ideal name and indeed resilience is a characteristic of every farmer as we constantly face greater challenges with weather and policy.

He is owned by the National Cattle Breeding Centre NCBC, which operates the breeding program for and in conjunction with Progressive Genetics and Munster Bovine. 

Munster have been part of the team here since our switch to AI over a decade ago; as we have progressed the herd, it has always been fantastic to have those who have encouraged us, reassured us and given advice. 

While it is wonderful to win a rosette in the show ring, it is just as satisfying to have a bull in AI as it is to breed a top show heifer, it is a sense of confidence in the direction our breeding has taken. 

Watching Resilient on his journey from birth through selection for a potential sire and then seeing his EBI remain solid over the last 12 months whilst also passing all his health checks and semen quality analysis has been such an education into how much work goes into bulls becoming available for use on herds across the country. 

Let's hope he lives up to his name and follows in the Blossom cow family's footsteps.