I've heard a few Glanbia suppliers are doing it to reduce the supply pressure on their supply curve but wouldn't be certain on that.
A neighbour would start in mid April for mid January calving. He reckons he can get the cows out from the start of February to get enough grass eaten off to have good covers for the start of the second round. We'd get a lot of rain round here so a lot of the grazing done would be on-off anyway. I'm not sure if he's right but he seems happy with it.
First heifer being done today, cows starting on Saturday. I'd leave the heifer only she's one of a bunch of tools that refuse to stay where they're put so I'm hoping she'll settle with the cows when she's hopefully incalf. Same with the other 5 tools