Farmer: David Kinsella

Address: Begerinloftus, New Ross, Co. Wexford

System: Suckler to beef farmer

David runs a sucker to beef enterprise on his farm holding in Co. Wexford. “It’s mainly steer beef and heifer beef and generally they are slaughtered at less than 21 months of age.”

David keeps 69 cows and in calf heifers on the farm which are all artificially inseminated. ‘We keep three main breeds: Charolais Simmental, and Limousin. The calves spend two grazing seasons at grass and one winter indoors.” says David.

Origin Green

For David it has been important to set goals to improve his herd efficiency and profitability.

He is quick to highlight the positive impact that being in Origin Green has had for him, “For me Origin Green is in no way onerous, it’s linked to good farm practices as far as I’m concerned. When a calf is born on the farm the aim is to get him out to the factory as heavy as possible in the quickest possible time. Being an Origin Green member makes this possible.’

Grass Management

One of his priorities is grass management. Weather permitting, David aims to achieve a long grazing season each year. “I like to get cattle out the middle of February and the last of them are coming in early November. Grass is multiple times cheaper than purchased feed. The longer you can keep your animal out, the less purchased feed I need, it’s better for the environment as they are not in producing slurry, and I am able to send them to slaughter quicker.”

For David, getting the animals out early spring and giving them a long grazing season, improves the number of kilos of beef produced per animal as they are on grass. “It’s a relatively straight forward system I’m running, and management has a lot to do with it. I know what I want from my farm and I’m planning for what I want.”

“You want everything producing at its maximum, no stragglers, no passengers, and all producing top quality. By doing this I’m reducing my carbon footprint and increasing my profit. For me the two are linked, so in that sense, if you achieve a higher profit by having good outputs, you'll automatically have a lower carbon footprint because each hectare will be producing the maximum kilos of beef for the inputs you put into that hectare”.

Carbon Navigator

David has a very clear vision of his role, “My job is to produce top quality beef that the consumer can eat knowing it was produced in an environmentally friendly manner.”

David sees the tools that Origin Green put in place are helping him to become more efficient. “During the standard 18 month Bord Bia audit check, they do a carbon navigator exercise to see how the farm is doing. They measure the kilos of carbon per livestock produced and this is how they measure my carbon footprint. Bord Bia give you feedback on this and give you tips to help improve it. It’s all linked to profit. It’s not about producing less, it’s about producing more efficiently per unit of carbon input which you have. The more efficient you get, the lower your carbon footprint will be”.

Pride in produce

“I’m very proud of what I do. I get a great sense of satisfaction from farming. “I have four children, and hopefully one of them will become a farmer and I’ll hand the farm down to them hopefully in a better condition of what I received it in and they'll take it over and improve it further.

“Improving on each year and beating my own targets and goals is the thing that gives me the buzz to keep going and if you keep doing that then you are going in the right direction”.

“I'm looking after this land; I’m a caretaker of the land to ensure its sustainability and profitability.”.