John McSweeney farms a 27ha block of what can only be described as good-quality free-draining land near Lissarda, Co Cork. John operates the farm on a part-time basis, working off the farm four days a week.

John has always run a mixed suckler and dairy-calf enterprise. However, since the joining the Teagasc/ Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm beef challenge, the system has received some slight tweaking.

Previously, John was running around 20 sucklers and buying in 100 dairy calves to rear. All stock was sold live.

Now, John’s plan is to run a herd of 30 suckler cows, taking all progeny to beef.

Bulls are sold under 16 months, while heifers are slaughtered at 19 to 20 months of age.

Instead of purchasing 100 calves for live selling, John is now going to purchase below half of this number and take all stock to finish as steer beef.

It is hoped that by increasing cow numbers and finishing all stock on-farm, output and stocking rate per hectare can be increased, which in turn can give rise to a target gross margin of €1,500/ha.

Fodder

One month ago, John was facing into a winter with almost no fodder in the yard due to the recent drought conditions, as well as losing his source for purchasing in fodder.

Over the last month, John started selling stock to alleviate the fodder pressures.

Some dairy calves reared on the farm were sold live.

Ten acres of meadow was also fertilised, with the aim being to take 60 bales from this.

A standing meadow was also purchased where another 60 bales should be possible.

Since John has a diet feeder, 200 bales of straw were pre-purchased and will be included in the diets of cows and older stock to stretch silage reserves.

Under-16-month bulls will be fed ad-lib from as early a date as possible and weanling heifers will also receive meals.

In a further attempt to reduce demand on fodder stocks, 8ac of Redstart was sown at the end of July.

BETTER Farm autumn walks

This year's BETTER Farm autumn walks have set out an extremely topical agenda and one that is sure to be informative and worthwhile, as well as enjoyable.

Each of the four farm walks - taking place in Cork, Carlow, Clare and Louth - will focus on fodder, finance and herd health.

There will also be various groups of livestock and farmyard features on display from the host farmers.

The events are KT approved and Department officials will be present on the day for sign-in.

For those concerned about what is facing them this winter, these are certainly events worth going along to.

The first walk will take place on John McSweeney’s farm on Tuesday 4 September from 4pm to 6pm. The farm is located at Gurraneigh, Lissarda, Co Cork. Eircode: P14P593.