Approximately 300 farmers turned out to the first farm walk on Patrick Grennan's farm outside New Ross, Co Wexford today.

Along with running a herd of 45 suckler cows, finishing everything to beef as under 16 month bulls and heifers at 22-14 months, Patrick also works in a visitor centre on the farm, The Kennedy Homestead.

Since joining the Better Farm programme, and before it, Patrick has focused on streamlining the system to reduce the labour input to allow him to work part-time.

The herd is 100% spring calving. Patrick told the group that this year he managed to calve down the herd in eights weeks. He said that over the years he has been focusing on fertility, culling infertile cows and keeping only productive, functional types.

Programme adviser, Peter Lawrence, drew the crowd's attention to the fact that by doing the simple things right on the farm, he has managed to keep the Gross Margin of the farm above €1000/ha over the last few years.

The farm is also fragmented in nature, making grassland management difficult, but Patrick has still managed to divide up the farm into large fields, which are subdivided further using temporary fences and movable drinkers during the grazing season.

The suckler herd originated from first cross British Friesian cows crossed with to a Limousin. He runs two stock bulls with the herd; a terminal and a maternal Limousin. The maternal bull is used to breed to milky cows that are functional, are good mothers and rear good calves. These will then be kept as replacements if they meet the required weight targets to calve down at 24 months.