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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.