Paula Hynes: A true dynasty on our dairy farm

I often wonder if the consumer knows what it takes to produce food and the sheer hardship that farmers put themselves through
Paula Hynes: A true dynasty on our dairy farm

Alanna giving birth to her 11th calf, a Unix sired heifer calf.

The dictionary defines the word 'dynasty' as a succession of people from the same family who play a prominent role in a business. I can honestly say when it comes to cows, our Alanna has, without doubt, created a dynasty of her own on our farm. 

She calved for the 11th time at the start of February with a wonderful black heifer calf sired by Unix. It's nice to get a Unix heifer from her as he is a tremendous sire of cows, and she herself is a cow maker. 

I thoroughly enjoyed just watching her calve — cool and calm, she knows her job, and there is no big drama. She licked the calf clean and dry before filling her belly with silage, one eye on her calf and the following morning reclaimed her place in the milking parlour.

Alanna is an EX92 cow; her udder still snugs for an old cow. She has never been lame, never had mastitis, and she goes in calf quickly, even to sexed semen. Her average somatic cell count over 10 lactations is 66,000.

Where she really proves herself within the herd is the daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters. She is placed in the herd; I counted seven Alannas in one row of the milking parlour recently. 

Two of her granddaughters are All Ireland EBI Champion heifers, she herself is 255 EBI and she has many over 300 EBI in her family. 

Rathard Bullseye Alanna competing at the RUAS Winter Fair with Georgie Hynes.
Rathard Bullseye Alanna competing at the RUAS Winter Fair with Georgie Hynes.

Her own Bullseye heifer from last year had a super year on the show circuit with Georgie, winning the Cork YMA qualifier, placing second at YMA National Finals and also placing second at the RUAS Winter Fair in Belfast. 

Without doubt she has the potential to be a super cow and will be bred shortly before returning to the show circuit this season, Alanna herself will be bred again in April and most likely with sexed semen again. 

Regrettably not every cow can live out its days on the farm but it has been well agreed that when Alanna does eventually stop going in calf, she will be allowed to retire and live out her days in a paddock, she owes us nothing and we owe her so much.

On the subject of cow families, the dam of Rathard Resilient FR9262 calved on February 13, she is now on her fifth  lactation having produced 570kg milk solids in her four th lactation in 300 days.


All of her calves were born in February, with her last two via sexed semen, and this year's heifer calf is sired by Milton. The granddam of Resilient is also due to calve shortly. 

From the day Resilient was chosen to become an AI sire, we knew he was backed by a solid cow family and it is nice to see his dam continue to prove that. 

EBI sells when it comes to AI sires and it is crucial that farmers look at the cow families behind those sires. There are four things that make a standout cow for me, longevity as cows need to last in the milking parlour, having a high replacement rate is costly. 

Fertility is crucial; those cows that constantly go in calf quickly keep costs down and ensure they maximise days in milk. High health status, cows that don’t have SCC issues or lameness issues last in the herd and go in calf quickly.

Confirmation is also crucial; cows do a lot of walking on a grass-based system, so they need good legs and feet and also need good udder attachment. There is no point having a cow with her udder dragging on the ground when she hits her fourth or fifth lactation. 

Not every cow has to be a show cow, but every cow must be a worker and pay her way.

Calving has finally eased off with over 100 cows milking, and we are only seeing one or two cows calve every day. I can’t believe how fast it went this year. Normally, we would have a hectic time calving during Valentine's Day and this year we only had three cows calve, all of which had Charolais bulls. 

The plus side of having such a tight calving pattern is the efficiency, our milk production is the highest it has ever been for February and as cows will have more days in milk for the season, there is however a downside and that is pure exhaustion as life is simply work, eat and sleep. 

I often wonder if the consumer knows what it takes to produce food and the sheer hardship that farmers put themselves through. Every week is a 100-hour working week at the moment just to make sure everything is fed and healthy. 

I recently woke up to a heifer which had been calving, and the calf was dead, no apparent reason, but still a disastrous start to the working day, and I somehow blamed myself, thinking if only I had woken an hour or two earlier. 

Our job as farmers is to bring new life into the world, and it is always soul-destroying to see a dead calf, but the reality is I simply cannot work any more hours than I already am at the moment.

There is a fine line in how we as farmers protect ourselves mentally and physically when the workload is at its peak.

Pete and I booked a holiday for April so we can recharge the batteries, and while we are burned out from work at the moment, that holiday gives us something to look forward to. 

We can focus on counting down the weeks and counting down the days. As the hours passed after seeing that dead heifer calf, I also reminded myself that we had calved a cow five days prior at 2am in the morning, the calf was coming backwards and had we not intervened the calf would have died and perhaps the cow as well. 

In some ways, it was a gentle reminder to me that we, as farmers, go above and beyond to do our best, but we are not machines, and life is not always perfect on a dairy farm.

At least the workload has turned a corner on the farm now, calving has eased, calves are strong and healthy and will begin leaving the farm this week for other beef farms.

March is not too far in the distance now, and before we know it, we will be into Saint Patrick's Day, the days are getting longer, and hopefully, Mother Nature will be kind to us with the weather for the spring ahead.

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