Tommy Holmes is farming an 18ha home block on the outskirts of Ballina in Co Mayo. He also rents two other blocks of land less than five miles away; one 20ac block which is used mainly for grazing beef bulls.

The farm structure is very typical of that in the west of Ireland in so far as it is heavily fragmented, however, what is not so typical in the region is the excellent soil and relatively dry ground that can be found on the farm.

That said, Tommy takes full advantage of this and he entered the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge as one of the leading grass men and, over the last 18 months, has remained very close to the top of the pile.

System

The plan for the farm is to run a herd of 20 to 25 autumn calving suckler cows. Calving will take place during a strict 8-10 week window commencing on 1 August. Previously, Tommy found himself calving for up to eight months of the year. All progeny will be taken to beef apart from a handful of heifers which will be kept as replacements.

On those figures, Tommy is rearing only about 12 bulls and 9 heifers for slaughter each year. However, the kilos of beef going out the gate don’t end there. Tommy plans to slaughter over 100-head of cattle off the farm each year, purchasing mainly bulls to do so. Bulls will be slaughtered at both 16 and 20 months of age.

Grass

As mentioned, Tommy is one of the leading grass growers in the BETTER farm beef challenge. In 2017, he grew 13.1t DM/ha – well above the average of farmers in the programme. Despite 2018 being such a difficult year for grass growth, Tommy says, “I have definitely grown as much grass this year as last year, if not more.” Such is the level of grass on the farm at the moment, the plan is to keep cattle out until the middle of November. “All going well,” he said, “this should be a very short winter.”

Reseeding

Reseeding is an ongoing process on the farm. The plan is to reseed approximately 5% to 10% of the farm each year. The 20ac rented block, where the purchased bulls graze for the summer, is currently being worked on, with 7ac reseeded just over two weeks ago. Tommy explained, “the ground was sprayed off, ploughed, disc harrowed and power-harrowed and sowed. It also received 4t/ha of lime.”

Fodder

Because a bull beef system is the primary system on the farm, the demand for silage is significantly decreased. Bulls are finished on a beef nut and supplemented with straw for roughage. The only stock receiving silage for the winter is Tommy’s suckler cows and calves and a small number of heifers for beef and breeding. There is currently 220 bales in the yard which equates to around 155t of silage. This should be more than enough for even the worst case scenario.

For more on the bull beef system operated on Tommy Holmes’ farm, see this week’s Irish Farmers Journal and watch the video above.