Glen McDermott is farming on 53ha outside Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, with the help of his son Dillon. The farm is split into two blocks; a 21ha home block and a 32ha outfarm approximately three miles away.

Since joining the BETTER farm beef challenge, Glen has placed a large emphasis on increasing the productivity of his land to allow him to expand his herd of cows and even create the potential to buy in extra finishing stock.

System

Upon commencement of the programme, the farm was split calving, with 20 spring calvers and 20 late-autumn calvers. Glen admitted that “the calving season was running for nearly 10 months of the year”. He was also struggling to implement proper grazing management due to the large number of small groups of stock.

To rectify this problem, the entire calving season is being limited to January and February. To do this, the autumn calvers were allowed slip around into the spring herd. Currently, Glen has 42 in-calf to begin calving in early January, which will complete the system changeover.

Glen has also decided to move from a weanling system to a finishing system, which will also be made easier by having a larger and more uniform group of calves.

Expansion

By 2020, Glen hopes to calve 60 cows in the spring, thus increasing his cow herd by 50%. This expansion has been facilitated by the improved utilisation of grass on the farm.

First priority was the soil’s fertility. Large amounts of lime, P and K fertilisers, plus some pig slurry, was applied to the majority of the farm to improve fertility. Paddocks, drinkers and water troughs were also installed throughout the farm.

Added to this, unproductive areas were identified for reseeding and spraying, which worked extremely well. According to Glen: “The investment was absolutely worth it when I see the rewards.”

This year, Glen has finalised the lease of 16ha of neighbouring land. The land is in marginal condition. However, on the confidence of his prior reseeding and reclamation expeditions, Glen has already begun to clean up and reseed this block of ground, which he will complete over the next two years.

For more on reseeding and changing systems on Glen’s farm, watch the video above and read the article in this Thursday’s Irish Farmers Journal.

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