Eamon O’Connell: Don’t be fooled by the Instagram version of agriculture – no farm is problem-free in spring

You’re not alone – even on the best farms in the country, things go wrong at this time of the year

Tough time: Among the fatal problems Eamon O'Connell has had to deal with recently are: a cow with an abscess on her liver that had burst; a bull whose abscess ate into a major vein; and a potential champion calf whose broken leg turned necrotic. Photo: Alf Harvey

Eamon O'Connell

‘Am I the only one with problems?” a farmer asked me last week. We were surveying a bleak scene in the calving pen and he was very much disheartened.