The closing remarks from Pearse Kelly, Teagasc Head of Drystock at the recent Future Beef Programme national farm walk on the Skehan family farm in Co Clare highlighted a significant challenge for suckler farming of making it attractive to the next generation of farmers.
He said that Teagasc could be criticised in the past for “pushing output, output and more output”. And while output remains a critical component of farm viability, he said that the focus on some farms, and particularly those operating part-time, should also take into account a better work-life balance if the sector is to be successful in attracting the next generation of farmers.
“On this farm James has rightly said that his job is important to him. That does not mean that the farm is run any less efficiently and James has shown that here.
“James and his family are still achieving excellent performance and are making the farm work for them by focusing on the areas that deliver high levels of efficiency – good facilities to reduce labour input and a suckler cow that is consistently delivering high level of performance,” he said.
Farming system
James and Joanne Skehan and their children Nellie and Macartan farm 29.1ha of owned lands with help also given by James’s father and mother, Batt and Noreen.
The farm is fragmented into three main blocks – the home farm block of 17.48ha, an out-farm of 8.84ha and a separate parcel of 2.78ha, which is used exclusively for silage. The home and out-farm blocks are further divided by roadways, land parcels etc meaning there are six distinct land blocks.
Cow numbers stand at 27 with a target of pushing this to 30 calving in the next two years. The farm has transitioned from purchasing replacements to breeding its own and as such the focus has been mainly on maternal genetics.
Traditionally, progeny have been retained through to beef, but in 2025 a finishing budget identified that selling bullocks and surplus heifers not required for breeding as forward stores was the best option. A finishing budget is now an important management practice with the outcome of the 2026 finishing budget explained in detail later in the article.
Grazing infrastructure
There is 33 permanent divisions in place across the home and out-farm blocks which measure in the main from 0.5ha to 1ha. James told farmers at the walk that a big focus in recent years has been improving grazing infrastructure and animal handling facilities.
Upwards of €30,000, or €3,430/ha (€1,390/acre), has been invested in grazing infrastructure on the 8.84ha out-farm block. This can be broken down into €17,000 spent on digger hire and road installations, €9,554 on materials and labour for fencing and €3,756 for the installation of a piped water system.
There are 18 grazing divisions now in place with the average size at 0.49ha (1.2 acres). This, according to James, is suitable for grazing 30 to 40 yearling cattle in two-to-three-day paddocks during the main grazing season.
He comments that this has been one of the best investments made since taking over the running of the farm. In the past animals were set stocked over a large area which made it harder to manage grass quality along with curtailing the volume of grass grown and animal performance.
Now grass re-growths are protected and the volume of grass grown has increased significantly.
James also notes that animals are much quieter when accustomed to a rotational grazing system and easier to move or complete any animal handling tasks.
Breeding programme
Greater control of the genetics being used since moving to a closed herd is also credited in improving the docility of the herd. Based on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF) July 2026 EuroStar evaluation, the average herd replacement index value of cows is €140.
Teagasc advisor Stephen O’Neill highlighted that the herd has an excellent balance of good maternal genetics and beef characteristics. The predicted transmitting ability (PTA) for daughter milk is 6.8kg while the PTA for carcase weight is relatively high for a maternally-driven suckler herd at 16kg. Daughter calving interval is -0.75 while the docility figure is 0.01.
Joanne Skehan comments that there is no place for any docility issues. “There is no excuse with any cow that you think is a risk. We had a cow two years ago that had two real good calves but docility became an issue and she was culled straight away. It is not worth James, his dad or me risking going into a pen to calve a cow like that no matter how good the calf might be”.
James told farmers that carcase weight is an important trait that he has focused on in recent years despite majoring on maternal genetics and this is paying dividends in producing progeny with superior beef potential.
He is not willing to compromise on calving ease for its role in more straightforward calvings, commenting that there is plenty of bulls available with positive beef characteristics and calving ease. The Charolais sire CH5980, Jalabert, was used as an example of such with the bull having a PTA for carcase weight of 41.5kg, daughter milk yield of 7.4kg and calving difficulty of just 3.4% on mature cows.
On the milk side a number of cows in the herd are only a couple of generations away from the dairy herd with two first-cross Hereford-cross cows singled out by James for their role in breeding herd replacements.
“I would rather have eight of those type cows than any of the heifers in Carrick [Winter Fair]. That cow has bred eight great calves and is the dam of other cows in the herd that are also breeding good calves”. Positive PTA figures for milk yield help to hold this at a high level.
Stephen also outlined the key performance indicators (KPIs) for breeding, all of which the herd is performing admirably in. The calving interval is consistently around the 365-day mark, as detailed in Table 1 with the number of calves per cow per year also typically positive.
The reason for a spike in mortality in 2024 was due to a set of twins being lost while in 2025 a heifer calved up against a gate with the calf smothered in the process.
24-month calving
Calving at 24 months is also a positive KPI with 100% of heifers calving from 22 to 26 months of age. Maternal genetics are highlighted as providing the foundation for calving at a younger age while management and correct feeding practices are critical to heifers calving down easily and going back in calf.
“Those heifers are minded like babies in the second winter. They are grouped together and get whatever feeding they need and soya bean meal three weeks pre-calving. If heifers are looked after in the run up to calving and hit weight targets then I find there is no issues after calving and getting them back in calf,” said James.
Synchronised breeding is practised, again for labour efficiency. Conception rate in the herd has averaged around 60% to 70% in recent years and was recorded at 67% in 2026. It was said that some farmers steer clear of the practice as they think it will put too much pressure on facilities with cows calving on top of each other but James explains there is still a wide calving spread among cows which conceived following synchronisation with 16 days between the first and last cow that calved.
A stock bull is used to pick up and inseminate any animals which do not keep to synchronisation. The cost of the synchronisation programme is €30 for cows and €35 for heifers and again, according to James, is money well spent in condensing breeding and calving and running as simplistic a system as possible.
Table 2 details performance of calves in recent years.
The dip in performance seen in 2026 is due to the farm being affected by drought and silage being fed for four weeks to bridge the nutritional gap.
Financial performance
Teagasc’s Tom Gleeson discussed the financial performance detailed in Table 3.
Beef output increased in 2025 despite a lower stocking rate with this stemming from better animal performance and selling more kilos of beef. This dovetailed nicely with an increase in stock values and resulted in gross output rising by over 80% to €2,343. Variable costs reduced slightly compared to the previous year delivering a big jump in the gross margin achieved.
Fixed costs also reduced significantly. James explains that there were some unforeseen costs in the previous couple of years including accrued accountancy costs in 2023 and tractor repairs in 2024 which cost €6,000.
Depreciation costs are also reducing and the farm hopes to be in a position in 2026 of lower fixed costs compensating for a lower gross margin figure of €953 (due to reduced cattle sale values) and delivering a net margin of €523/ha.
If this materialises the farm will go from a position of costing over €20,000 to run in 2024 excluding premia to generating a net return of over €15,000 in 2026.
Finishing budget
A discussion took place on if it made more financial sense to finish 2025-born bullocks and heifers or sell as forward stores in the coming weeks. The discussion was facilitated by John Kilboyle with James and John Hogan from ABP.
John stated that the average grade of cattle slaughtered off the farm in 2023 and 2024 has been in the region of R+ bordering on U-. Previous to this cattle were sold as stores with TB forcing a change to slaughtering.
John said that at present cattle weigh 563kg. The value of store cattle in that week for the top third of stores weighing 500kg to 600kg was €4.20/kg to €4.30/kg giving an approximate sale value of €2,300 to €2,350.
He said that bringing the animals through to finish on 70% DMD silage and 6kg concentrates daily for 120 days will cost €250 for concentrates (approx. 750kg) and €175 for silage (3.5 bales of silage @€50/bale.) Add in costs for haulage and fixed costs and John says you are coming into €520 to €530 of costs.
Add this to a store price of €2,350 brings the total cost to €2,850 to €2,900. The expected liveweight after 120 days is in excess of 700kg liveweight or a carcase weight of 350kg to 370kg. This means that a beef price of €7.70/kg to €7.80/kg will be required to break even at a 370kg carcase.
John said that it is impossible to predict what beef prices will be like next spring. He predicts that there may be an increase in cattle throughput in November due to cattle being put on to feed due to drought.
Summing up, James thinks that he will opt for the live trade with a consideration also that he used significant feeding through the drought and would prefer to have surplus silage available next spring.