Robin Talbot News Today

We have weaned the bull calves. It is an event I approach with a mix of apprehension and hope, because this is the first time that we get to get a good look at the calves on their own as a group away from the cows.

We have completed the sale of our under-16-month bulls and the analysis of their returns make for interesting reading.

It has been a difficult few weeks on the farm. Because a newborn calf showed up with a positive test for BVD, we were required to blood-test all the herd.

As we were weighing some bulls in our remodelled cattle crush — more of that later — a couple of questions crossed my mind: why is there such a spread in their performance? And how do we go about producing more of the high performers and fewer of the poorer ones?

We’ve had a few very stressful weeks. I knew the landscape around BVD had changed since our only previous case seven years ago, but I had no inkling of just how much.

The Midweek Herald published 4 death notices last week.

I always draw a sigh of relief when the last tyre goes on the silage pit but this year, there were so many tyres left over that it looks like its going to be a major struggle to use them all up.

Laois IFA is holding a "Learn how to discover Nature on your farm" evening with Dr Fiona Mac Gowan  Botanist/ Ecologist on a Ballacolla farm on T...

Bald eagles, ospreys, a great egret and blue herons were spotted in Hampton Roads.

Miriam Gunn and her husband Michael milk 180 Holstein Friesian cows on their farm in Strokestown, Roscommon.