The Waiting Game and the Winterage

Donkeys on our winterage overlooking Galway Bay

All is quiet in Caherconnell this week.  Two of the puppies have gone to new homes and there are two more probably going in the next few days! *sniff, sniff.  They'l be missed!! After all, is there anything more adorable, cute and wonderful than puppies??!

Otherwise, the weather has calmed down, the cows are lining up to calve and we are in that edgy, restless, anxious phase of waiting when you try to relax and enjoy the momentary calm...but it is impossible when you know the storm is going to break at any minute!

The accounts are done as are the projections for 2015, but there is still some fiddly financial bits to work out so we have our ducks in a row!

                                  

The projected milk price for this year is 26c/27c a litre, so it will be a very tough year for any farmers new to dairying or who have big loans.  I hope they can make it through!

What you might not realise is that most dairy farmers need a milk price of 27c a litre to break-even, and that is with all the European funding.  A big fuss is made on occasion about farmers getting huge grants of money -but the reality is that these aren't grants; these are a means of keeping farm produce at low prices.  If farmers didn't have that supplementation we would be operating at a loss, stop producing our goods and the price of all dairy products, beef, chicken, eggs, pork, cereals, vegetables etc. would go through the roof.  That would continue until the natural economics of supply and demand stabilised the price where it naturally should be i.e. much higher than it is now!

                                

Sorry slight rant there! ;) So moving on, while our dairy cows are snug and cosy in their shed there are some beef cattle up on the mountain for the winter.  I can already here you exclaim in shock and outrage - animals outside in this weather!  Well there is a bit more to it than that:

This mountain is part of the Burren winterage, a limestone area of (small) mountains where animals spend the winter outside and are able to forage and survive with little or no additional feed.  This is because of the special ecological conditions, namely the warmth of the limestone and the mineral rich grass which grows there.  This "winterage" is unique to the mountainous region of the Burren in Co. Clare and it is quite funny to think that, as farmers everywhere else bring their cattle down out of the mountain, we are putting ours up! Only in Ireland!! ;)
We currently keep beef cattle (Charolais & Limousin) on this winterage between October and March and keep them in the grassland valley below for the rest of the year. As you can see they are happy out:

Cattle on the winterage

That is it for this week but maybe next time I'll have some newborn calf photos for you! :)

Puppies & Snow!

So we've had a little change in the weather here over the last few days. (Major understatement!)

Every time I turn on the weather report it is all colour alerts and weather warnings, orange, yellow, wind, snow but I think we have escaped the worst of it in Caherconnell...so far! *fingers crossed. 

Having said that we woke to a white landscape this morning and the roads are interesting to negotiate: snow, slush and slippiness.  I'd say the calves are glad of their thick winter coat.

This heifer has the freedom of the yard.  Unfortunately, she hurt her leg over the Christmas and as a result lost her calf.  We're hopeful that she will make a full recovery but only time will tell.  She isn't able to manage in the shed so this way she can have her pick of the feed and choose her own spots to lie down. 

Meanwhile, her herd mates are the picture of contentment as they look at out the cold and the wet.  There are a few getting close to calving and we should have our first calves in about a week or so. By the end of February we expect to have about 75% of our cows calved, that will hopefully mean 60 happy and healthy calves.  

But while we're waiting for the calves, we can introduce you to our other farm babies - The Puppies!! :)  These five gorgeous little devils were born in November and are just about ready to go to new homes but before you fall in love with them - Be Warned: These are working dogs not pets!!  

Both of their parents are good cattle dogs and we will be keeping one pup to train up for the farm - we have high hopes for the little lady.  However, we are actively looking for homes for the other four, so if you want one or know somebody that does, feel free to get in touch.  

Spring is coming!

Happy New Year!

My new years resolution? To blog about our dairy farm in Caherconnell located in the beautiful Burren on the west coast of Ireland.

Caherconnell Dairy Herd

Now that the farm is quiet, it is time to get to the bottom of that tottering pile of paperwork. With all projections indicating a poor milk price this year, we need to review the year gone by and start planning for the year ahead!  Its tedious and time consuming and nobody likes it but it has to be done! So there's plenty of grumbling and tons of pots of tea on the go around here at the moment.

After all there's only a few weeks in January and Spring is Coming! Spring is always daunting. The craziest and busiest time in the farming calendar, Spring means long days, late nights, the joy of new life, the sadness when you lose a calf, or worse still, a cow. The twice daily milking returns complete with the 5.30am alarm clock and a farmer husband who is rarely seen or heard from.

We have a herd of Holstein/Friesan cows but this is our second year breeding to Fleckvieh sires and I am really excited to see the Waldbrand and Rurex calves arriving this year.  Expect another blog post on this later!

In the meantime I'll leave you with a picture of our first two calves from 2014, both just one day old at the time.  The red & white is our first Fleckvieh cross calf!

HF + FLVx calves