Kieran Noonan farms 105 acres near Charleville, Co Cork. He keeps 50 suckler cows, which calve in the autumn.

An AI-technician by day, Kieran aims to sell his progeny live, as strong weanlings.

However, half of Kieran’s cows are pedigree and he enjoys a degree of success selling breeding stock. This culminated in the sale of a Limousin bull (LM4302) by Wilodge Cerberus from one of his Castleview-bred cows to an AI company in late-2016.

As a business the farm’s viability is questionable – unfortunately the case for many beef farms. In the last six years, Kieran’s average gross margin has been just €233/ha.

So what now? How do we turn things around?

Having spent time with Kieran and on his farm, the BETTER team, led by programme manager and advisor to the southeastern group Alan Dillon, have identified a number of key areas for Kieran to work on.

The war on rushes

Of Kieran’s 105 acres, around 50 are overrun with rushes. The plan is to reseed and drain 15-20 acres per year from 2018 – Kieran is carrying out other important infrastructure works this year and thus the cash to do more work on his grassland is simply not there.

Rushes will be sprayed with 5l/ha of MCPA, cut six weeks later and baled to remove them from the land. The following reseeding protocol will then apply:

1. Spray off with round-up (max allowable rate) leave for 10 days.

2. Clean boundary ditches and drains.

3. Address any major swampy areas with shallow boundary-to-boundary shore drains (no pipes used).

4. Plough to 5in if field is uneven and level with land leveller.

5. Apply lime – 2-3t/acre.

6. Disc and power harrow/seeding

7. Roll and fertilise using three bags of 10-10-20 per acre.

8. Post emergence spray after six weeks.

9. Graze after eight weeks with calves/light stock.

10. Continue to address soil fertility afterwards, with 18-6-12 being the main fertiliser. Top up with 2t of lime per acre after two years.

Silage quality

Making good quality silage is key in an autumn-calving herd. The most important period in a suckler cow’s production cycle is that between calving and breeding. Keeping this short is paramount and driving energy intake is one of the keys to doing so.

In an autumn-calving herd grass silage is usually the staple during this period and silage with sub-70% DMD is unacceptable. In such a scenario fertility will take a hit unless we intervene with meaningful amounts of expensive concentrates.

In 2016, Kieran fed 67-68% DMD silage and was forced to feed 1.5kg of meal to cows in addition. His herd-wide calving interval is 380 days and his spread has gotten away from him somewhat. In contrast, other BETTER beef autumn-calving herds are feeding 75% DMD silage to cows with no meals and have sub-365 day calving intervals.

Going forward, Kieran will aim to make his main first cut of silage in mid- to late-May, having grazed it tightly either late in the back end, or the spring prior to 1 April (weather permitting).

Winter accommodation problems

Kieran is tight on shed space at present. His main shed was designed to accommodate around 100 animals, but when young autumn calves in the creep areas are taken into account that figure is closer to 140.

Last winter, Kieran was hit hard with respiratory problems in his young calves. While he didn’t lose any animals, thrive was severely hit.

His birth to 200-day weight gain was 40-50% lower than what an autumn calver with his type of animal should be aiming for, at 0.57kg/day. Subsequent blood tests revealed Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasturella multocida pneumonia strains, which typically effect the upper respiratory tracts (tonsils) of animals before moving to the lungs.

Vaccinations are one part in the puzzle of disease prevention and simply help to tip the scales in our favour – the scales can also go the wrong way if other measures aren’t taken. Indeed, there is no vaccination against P. multocida currently available. The first issue to be addressed is overcrowding. Kieran is erecting a lean-to on to the side of the existing shed that will work as both a calving area and a creep area for young calves.

3 structural adaptations to Kieran’s current shed that will help to get air flowing

1. While the roof sheets are spaced, there is scope to create a capped opening along the apex of the shed’s roof.

2. The value of vented side sheets as a means for letting in air is questionable, such that it has now been removed from the TAMS spec list. Kieran will replace these with Yorkshire boarding before the winter.

3. Kieran will create some large square openings in the sheets above the shed doors. If needs be these can be easily covered with green mesh netting. He will also aim to leave doors at each end of the creep areas open, using round bales as shelter at ground level. They will be shut in extreme weather conditions.

Adviser comment

Kieran has a long way to travel to improve the profits on his farm. Half the farm is growing no grass at all and as a result there is a lot of pressure on the grazing ground that is kept in good order.

The priority here is to get grass growing without breaking the bank. The poor land is not overly wet so much of it will get away with only minor investments in drainage, along with reseeding and soil fertility improvements.

Grass varieties will be selected for heavy land.

Once this land is back in production Kieran will be in a position to cut costs dramatically and carry a more realistic whole farm stocking rate once this is completed. The whole job will take four years to complete.

- Alan Dillon

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