Things are heating up on the Hynes farm - literally

Every cow calved is a step closer to finishing the calving season, writes Cork-based dairy farmer Paula Hynes.

Paula Hynes says the milk heater has been one is one of the best investments she has made on-farm this year.

Calving has really started to heat up now, with seven or eight calves being born every day, which makes work life fairly full on.

Getting out of the farmyard for dinner late every evening and knowing the wellies and overalls are merely resting for a small bit as there are more cows contemplating giving birth before bedtime can feel pressured at times. 

The crucial thing I feel is to stay positive no matter how busy the workload is; every cow calved is a step closer to finishing the calving season. 

The milking parlour is busy now with so many fresh calvers coming in each day, so the pecking order in the herd is constantly changing; each fresh calver gets her tail clipped and red tape on it until such time as she is clear of antibiotics from dry cow therapy. 

It is a constant watch to see which cow can have her red tape removed and return to normal production. We are really happy with milk production as the herd has produced over 2.5 times more milk this January compared to January 2024, with a butterfat average of 4.51% and protein at 3.62% for the month. 

SCC is hovering around 137 and should reduce further as cows spend more time at grass. The cows had a three day break from grazing due to ground conditions after the storm but are grazing away every day again and seem very content with ground conditions very good which also allowed the contractors to spread some more slurry for us.

A lot of our beef calves have been arriving up to ten days before their due date; we have been using Lapon CH4321 as a beef sire for the last few years, so we used him across the entire herd in 2024. 

He has really impressed us as gestation length isn’t an issue, and calf vigour is super with the calves being easy to rear on. Our beef-rearing customers seem happy with them as we already have 50% of the beef calves presold to returning customers.

I really do like the Charolais calves, and it is nice to see the different colours, from white to fawn, golden and red. 

One investment I did make this calving season was a milk heater for heating up transition milk - I can honestly say it is one of the best investments I’ve made as calves just guzzle the warm milk.

We found previously that transition milk had cooled too much by the time all the cows were milked, which made some calves slow to drink. 

Now, I just pop the heater into a big bucket of milk, and it is back to normal temperature in a few minutes; the fact that calves drink the warm milk better and quicker saves a load of time.

Informed calf-rearing

As we are part of the National Genotyping Programme and all calves are DNA registered, we tag every calf the moment it is born and tissue samples are posted twice weekly to the laboratory to ensure we play our part in keeping it running as smoothly as possible. 

If we are efficient on-farm, we can have the blue registration card and genotype data within three weeks of birth. The benefit is we can guarantee who the sire and dam are. 

We also have accurate CBV values for the customer, and we will also have surplus heifer calves again so it is crucial we have accurate data on those and as I am writing this, two cows have calved in the group calving pen and both having heifer calves but one cow has decided to be mother to both so we will have to wait for the DNA parental verification to be sure of which calf belonged to which cow. 

A fresh calved cow on the Hynes farm

Realistically, the timeframe of three to four weeks for DNA registration is not a hindrance as we won’t have more calves on the farm any younger than this anyway; calves need to be strong and healthy before they undertake any journey or are exposed to a new environment.

We are using Precision Microbes on the all the calves again this season to ensure gut health is maximized, it is far easier to be preventative and keep calves healthy. 

Healthy calves are less work, perform better and keep the veterinary bill to a minimum, given that Precision Microbes is an approved organic product, it is also another way of reducing antibiotic usage on farm.

January seemed to bypass me as we were so busy and while the bank holiday weekend is upon us now, the only real difference this bank holiday makes to me is that I have no school run on the Monday.

I do have a trip to Dublin airport though as Becky is returning home from Australia. It is worth the drive to Dublin as it gives us three hours to chat and catch up on the drive home. 

I think if she were to get the Bus home from Dublin, I would most likely be working or asleep on her return and would miss out on so much chatting together. She seems really excited to be returning home, she has only seen photos of Rouge so far along with videos of all the new calves. 

No doubt, the clipping machine will be back in action swiftly as she begins to work on this year's show team. I’ll be glad to see the hair swiped off the first lactation show animals and see how they look under their fluffy coats.

With an international group arriving on the farm later in the week, there is plenty of last-minute tidying happening around the yard in between cows calving.

Hopefully, calving will stay reasonably quiet during their visit; perhaps the cows could chat amongst themselves and agree that one would take charge of having a nice simple and easy calving while our guests are here, which would also afford us plenty of time to chat with the group and answer the questions they will have.

I will fill you in on their visit in my next column, and hopefully, Alanna will have calved by then as well as she is in the calving pen preparing for the birth of her 11th calf.