Tom Halpin runs a herd of 90 suckler cows on 62ha at Robertstown, Co Meath. The farm’s current stocking rate is approaching 2.5 LU/ha, up from 1.49 in 2011.

Replacements are bred on-farm and remaining progeny are brought through to slaughter, with bulls killed at 16 months and heifers at 20 months.

Continental breeds are the only show in town here, although Tom places a big emphasis on milk and fertility.

A four-star maternal Limousin bull by Ronick Hawk (RKH) runs with heifers. His calving difficulty is 4.7%, at a reliability of 85%, which is ideal.

A Simmental bull with five stars on the maternal index runs with Tom’s most prolific cows. He’s new, but will become the main source of replacements in the herd. He has an impressive daughter milk index figure of 10.95kg.

The rest of Tom’s cows have a Charolais bull by Nelson (NEX) to keep them company. He’s five stars on the terminal index and boasts a substantial carcase weight index value of 43kg.

Summer calving

Tom has two defined eight-week calving periods, spring (February and March) and summer (June and July).

It’s a question he’s been asked many times: why summer calving?

Tom cites multiple reasons for the unorthodox split. Although there are calving facilities in place, the farm does not have the capacity to successfully calve and accommodate large numbers simultaneously.

The split means that he can carry more suckler cows with the resources that he has. Calving twice also improves cashflow, as Tom is slaughtering stock more often during the year.

While efficient use of resources and cashflow can be similarly improved with a spring-autumn split, Tom could give more reasons for the summer switch.

“It reduces some of the labour demand around calving time. While I’m on my own during spring calving, Matthew [Tom’s son, an ag science student in UCD] helps during the summer holidays.

“Remember that these cows don’t turn out until the end of April, which takes some pressure off the grazing platform in the spring time. They’re also going to the bull late in the season when grass is plentiful.

“Nutrition and cow condition are rarely issues and I can get these cows back in-calf quite easily, before they’re housed,” said Tom.

When I visited, the summer calving season was one week away. Tom’s management strategy for the summer calvers is simple.

Early in the season, three paddocks surrounding Tom’s house and yard are grazed tight by young stock. The 40 summer calvers then run here up to calving.

The total area of these paddocks is just 10 acres and lick buckets are a source of dry-cow minerals. By keeping the grass supply tight, Tom prevents these cows from becoming over-fat.

As well as experiencing calving difficulty, fat cows can lose excessive amounts of condition post-calving. This has negative effects on fertility and endangers the 365-day calving interval.

In addition, an over-fat cow will eat less post-calving – not the ideal scenario when the aim is to maximise energy intake and prevent condition loss.

In the coming weeks, Tom will walk individual cows and heifers to the nearby yard as they spring up.

Surplus grass has been the story of the past three weeks on Irish farms and Tom Halpin’s holding is no different.

He carries out one round of topping early in the season and then paddocks are taken out of the rotation as needs be.

To date, 20% of Tom’s grazing platform has been removed as round bales in an effort to maintain the quality of his swards. The plan is to remove more in the coming week, in conjunction with his main first cut of silage.

When I visited, Matthew was ferrying bales into the yard from a nearby paddock.

Tom informed me that last year’s surplus bales produced 79% DMD silage and formed the basis of the weanling’s winter diet. The plan for 2016 is similar. Through the production of such top-quality fodder, Tom can make a saving by feeding less meal to young stock in winter.

Targetting €1,200/ha

In 2014, the farm achieved a gross margin of €1,011/ha – the first year that the €1,000 barrier was broken. This represents a 76% improvement from 2011 figures.

In 2015, gross margin dropped slightly to €832, although Tom is confident that the farm will break the €1,000 mark again in 2016. His target is to consistently achieve a gross margin per hectare of €1,200.

To do so, he will increase output by lifting cow numbers to 110. Given that he is producing his own replacements, this may be a frustratingly slow process, but the temptation to breed from unsuitable beefy-type heifers for a quicker increase must be avoided.

Two under-16-month bull systems – one winner

Tom’s first batch of bulls from spring 2015 were slaughtered last week and averaged 409kg of carcase weight. This figure is all the more impressive given that not one bull in the group was over 15 months of age at slaughter.

The group’s average conformation and fat scores were U- and 2+ respectively and all were priced on the quality assurance (QA) grid.

When Tom’s summer-born bulls hit grass following weaning, they maintain a daily liveweight gain of 1.3kg between 1 March and 1 July.

Meanwhile, beef bulls born in the summer of 2015 graze contentedly. They were weaned and turned out in early March of this year and will return to the sheds for an intensive finishing period in July. The aim is to get them finished prior to 16 months of age.

For these bulls, Tom targets a weight of 500kg on their birthday and typically achieves it with relative ease.

Though slaughtered at a similar age, the spring- and summer-born bull systems are quite contrasting.

Spring-born bulls are weaned late in the year, housed and built up to a complete concentrate diet. They do not return to grass following winter.

Both bull production systems have their pros and cons.

When Tom’s summer-born bulls hit grass following weaning, they maintain a daily liveweight gain of 1.3kg between 1 March and 1 July.

This is phenomenal performance over such a long period of time. It is also extremely cost-efficient.

Assuming that 0.76kg of this weight gain is going to the carcase and a beef price of €4.15/kg, these bulls are producing €3.15 of carcase weight daily at a feed cost of around €0.55.

In terms of daily margin over feed, this is the most lucrative part of the summer-bull system. Indeed, it is the cheapest period of weight gain in either of the bull systems.

However, a summer-born bull reaches his finishing-point in November. At this time of year, beef price is typically 15c to 20c less per kilogramme than what can be achieved in the middle of the year.

When I asked Tom which system he preferred, he was quick to pin his colours to the spring-born mast for that exact reason.

However, given the high costs and potential volatility of such systems, Tom’s split is quite sensible.

His risk is spread and he has options should there be a major price dip as his spring bulls approach slaughter.