The crowd hung on each and every word Tomás had to say, which was unsurprising – here was a farmer recording a gross margin in excess of €1,200/ha.

At the first of four stands, Teagasc adviser Paul Gilligan gave the crowd a brief breakdown of the farming system. Tomás Murphy calves all of his 70 cows in the spring, having switched from split calving to streamline the enterprise and reduce feeding costs. Bullocks are slaughtered at or before 24 months of age, with non-replacement heifers going at 22 months.

The first crowd queries concerned target carcase weights, which are 410kg for bullocks and 380kg for heifers, as well as an interesting question as to whether or not Tomás was seeing poorer quality calves by leaning toward maternal sires.

“No, my stock bulls are strong both maternally and terminally. Those weights are with minimal meal input – grass is the main feed here,” he said.

Silage

Silage was up for discussion at stand two. With second cut on people’s minds at present, the crowd was reminded to get 80 units of N out six weeks prior to cutting and base P and K rates on soil tests. The fact that silage is a sulfur-hungry crop was also highlighted. A fertiliser regime for silage ground should contain 20 units of sulfur per acre.

Patrons were urged to carry out a winter fodder budget, even if they were confident that there was enough silage saved

Next, the importance of silage quality was demonstrated on a table that showed how each 4% DMD drop needed an extra 1kg of meal to maintain weanling winter performance. For 30 animals in a five-month winter, this equated to over €1,100 in extra concentrate.

Patrons were urged to carry out a winter fodder budget, even if they were confident that there was enough silage saved. The crowd was reminded that two of the last four springs were no-shows and that every producer should know how much feed he or she has in reserve regardless.

An upcoming Focus supplement in the Irish Farmers Journal will deal with fodder budgeting and making up deficits.

Breeding and fertility

Stand three focused on breeding and fertility. Tomás’s performance in this area is well ahead of national averages in terms of calving interval (379 v 409 days), mortality at birth (0 v 4.7%) and calves/cow/year (0.94 v 0.82). He cited the selection of high-maternal-index cows and a focus on mineral supplementation as the major positive influences on herd fertility.

BDGP requirements were then revisited, with a gentle reminder that all applicants needed to have a carbon navigator completed by 31 October 2016.

Synchronisation programme

Dr Mervyn Parr from Teagasc Grange outlined the results of a fixed-time AI synchronisation programme, which Tomás Murphy participated in. The synchronisation protocol was outlined in last week’s edition of the Irish Farmers Journal. Mervyn urged the crowd that any mass synchronisation programme should be carried out at the start of breeding and that a pre-breeding scan was required if the interventions were coming at or before 35 days post-calving.

Programme manager Alan Dillon spoke at the final stand, which covered cattle finishing. Silage quality is important in the farm’s finishing systems – Tomás wants to keep the meal bill as low as possible. Last year’s silage was 77% DMD, which is top-class and perfect for a farm finishing bullocks and heifers.

He can significantly reduce meal inputs without negatively affecting weight gains.

Next stop on the BETTER Farm trail is Richard Williamson’s farm walk in Meath this Thursday at 2pm.

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Watch: A streamlined enterprise that measures to manage