On one of the many wet evenings recently I ended up on the website belonging to the Irish Native Rare Breed Society and it got me thinking whether the part-time suckler farmer will end up as a rare breed themselves.

Whatever about having a few cattle to graze in the summer, it takes a certain person to feed cattle, work an eight hour day and then return home to do more jobs on a dark winter’s evening.

Never mind the issues which arise around calving or lambing with broken nights and unplanned problems, which can go hand in hand with stock.

But whether it’s through determination, stubbornness or simply a grá for hardship and cattle, they carry on.

Here in the northwest, most years we don’t expect stock to be out before April.

If our weather is going to continue to be as unpredictable as it has been in the last couple of years, the winter is going to be more of a slog than ever and it’ll take a toll on the number of farmers willing to carry on in a sector which is struggling to keep up with rising costs and red tape.

For us, I simply can’t imagine not having cattle around the farm. When you grow up with them, they’re rather difficult to get out of your system, and I don’t think a doctor or vet could prescribe anything to remedy the affliction.

Certain days are looked forward to each year, and thankfully one of those occurred recently when we managed to get the first cattle out to graze on the farm.

It truly lightens the heart to watch the cows leaping about like ungainly newborn calves, despite their more advanced years.

With blue skies, swallows swooping above our heads and a cuckoo calling in the distance, the dark and dreary days of winter are soon forgotten.

Wily

Although one of our weanling heifers from last year decided she didn’t want to wait for the official release date and taught herself how to open the latch into the lying areas at the back of our slats.

It wasn’t until after finding her there on numerous mornings that we realised it wasn’t one of us leaving the gate open and by watching us each day she had learned to nudge the bar open.

It certainly goes to show that they are more wily than you’d think, and it’s not a problem so long as she doesn’t begin to open gates between fields now that she’s outdoors.

For now, only three cows close to calving remain in the shed, and we can finally start to think about getting some of the necessary summer work started outside.

While plans for silage and hay are still up in the air, we did manage to get most of the rushier fields treated with the licker and aim to have fertiliser out in the next week on the heavier meadows.

As many of you may recall, we held an online fundraiser in conjunction with a tractor run last December to support the DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) service in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, which provided surgical treatment for my father’s Parkinson’s disease.

Following on from this, we were delighted to recently present a cheque for €5,460 to consultant Dr Catherine Moran and DBS nurse Annama.