Paula Hynes: Our heifer is stuck in Scotland... and looks set to stay there until the end of the year

he heifer was born in September, so the plan was she would travel home to Ireland in December after we had competed at the Winter Fair... but it hasn't quite worked out that way, writes Cork dairy farmer Paula Hynes.

Farm vet Pat Burke checks a sample taken from a newborn calf on the Hynes family farm in Aherla. Picture: Andy Gibson.

I have been keeping a close eye on the outbreak of Bluetongue in the UK for the last few months. Blue Tongue is a viral disease spread by biting midges, which affects all ruminants, especially sheep, cattle goats and deer and camelids such as llama and alpaca.

The symptoms seem to vary across the different ruminants but will include fever, lesions, redness of the mouth, eyes, and nose, reddening of the skin above the hoof and nasal discharge. And some animals may show little or no signs.

There was a new strain, BTV-3, first reported in the Netherlands in September 2023 and then cases popped up in Belgium and Germany. I didn't take a whole pile of notice until I heard about the outbreak in the UK on November 10, 2023. 

You might ask why I suddenly have taken an interest in it when, thankfully, we don't have it here in Ireland.

The reason I have an interest is that we purchased a jersey heifer for Georgie last September, in Scotland. She was devastated when our own Jersey cow had a bull calf even though we had used sexed semen, but alas, that's the way it goes. You only get a 90% chance of a heifer with sexed semen. 

So, we decided we would surprise her with her own calf. The heifer was born in September, so the plan was she would travel home to Ireland in December after we had competed at the Winter Fair. 

That way, she would be old enough to travel, and it wouldn't interfere with the girls competing in Belfast also, we would essentially be locked up for 30 days after her arrival to Ireland.

Georgie and I travelled to Scotland in November to meet 'Ravina' in person, and she was smitten straight away. She has a brilliant personality and definitely has the cheeky persona of some Jerseys. 

Georgie knew we bought the heifer in September, and the breeders very kindly allowed her to pick her name, so as you can imagine, there was great excitement. She chose the name Ravina as the name had to begin with R, and with Pete in New York at the time we did the deal on the heifer, she picked Ravina after a town in upstate New York.

The two got on like a house on fire and bonded straight away. Georgie and I got to spend some quality time on our own as well, so that was great. 

The plans were made that Ravina would travel home at the end of December, and then we heard about the Bluetongue outbreak. To be honest, with just one case at the time, we didn't think it would be a big deal. Now there are 112 confirmed cases across 64 different premises. 

Speaking to friends in the agricultural sector in the UK, at the moment, there is no vaccine for the new strain which originated in Africa. There are vaccines for other strains, including BTV-8, 2 & 4, which are used in France for export purposes, but unfortunately, this doesn't provide any cross-protection for the strain BTV-3, which is in the UK at the moment.

I'm told it's unlikely there will be a vaccine available early enough this year, so therefore, our heifer cannot be brought to Ireland and has to remain in the UK until at least the end of the year.

All we can do is monitor the situation, but the reality is a vaccine is needed now to ensure livestock are protected before midges become active; with warmer months ahead, midges may spread the disease further in the UK. 

It wasn't fun telling Georgie; she was so disappointed. But she always has a very positive attitude, and she says that we will just have to come up with a plan B until she can come home. 

The discussions are happening already at the dinner table, and before long, I'm sure we will have a plan in place that best suits us and Ravina.

Life and death on the farm

On the home front, calving has rapidly progressed; we sold some late-calving older cows through Bandon Mart last week at a dairy sale. Sean Dennehy, the mart manager, was extremely helpful and is nice to see those cows go onto other dairy farms to complete another lactation.

We have a group of high EBI maiden heifers which will be sold before the breeding season, so Sean will be out with us again in the coming weeks to photograph them and prepare a sales catalogue.

Rosie is a 2015 born cow, a part of the Alanna cow family, which has been so successful for us, in fact, the matriarch Alanna cow became a great-great-grandam this week with another heifer calf born on the farm, and still, Alanna is performing herself as she heads for the straw pen this week to deliver what will be her 10 th calf; she was bred to sexed semen, so fingers crossed. 

Rosie was due to calve in April of our Fleckvieh bulls; Pete put her on a straw bed this week as her udder began to fill, we knew it was far too early for her to calve, but 24 hours later, she gave birth to what is undoubtedly the smallest premature live calf we have ever seen, definitely five weeks before due date and scanning suggested it was as much as eight weeks early. The poor little heifer calf didn't even have hair; her breathing was under tremendous pressure due to her underdeveloped lungs. 

As we dried her, Pete managed to carefully stomach tube her with 1.5L of colostrum, and she was placed in a warming box to give her extra heat, but unfortunately, the little calf didn't survive the night. Rosie developed a serious womb infection 24 hours late, stopped eating, rumination ceased, and she couldn’t stand.

Our vet, Pat Bourke, is a fountain of knowledge with huge experience; he knew it was touch and go for Rosie but gave it his best shot and full credit to him Rosie has now bounced back. She is chewing the cud, so we know she is ruminating, we are keeping her on straw for a few more days and milking her with the portable milker twice daily before she returns to the main herd. 

It wasn’t only emergency treatment Pat visited us for this week, he also donned his scanning goggles to confirm Acclaim incalf to sexed semen again thankfully which wasn’t the only positive pregnancy test as Magic was also confirmed incalf over in the UK.

I guess that is the highs and lows of farming, there is life and death on a farm, we try our best, but I am always thankful we have a great team of vets who work with us.