The Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge is coming to a close.

Over the last two months, we have been looking at some key changes made on the BETTER farms from the start of the programme to the end.

Ahead of the upcoming calving season, we take a look at how some of the calving statistics have changed from 2016 to 2019.

Age at first calving

In 2019, an impressive 71% of maiden heifers on the BETTER farms calved between 22 and 26 months of age. That’s well above the national average of 22% for 2019 and it’s also well above what the group of farms started off with. In 2016, the group average was just 46%.

Calving heifers at 24 months of age increases the number of calves a cow has over her lifetime, it reduces stocking rate on a farm (or allows it to carry more) and reduces costs.

Research from Teagasc Grange showed that every one month delay in calving date cost an extra €50/heifer/month. In 2019, five farmers calved over 90% of their females at 24 months.

Percentage of AI-sired calves

Major emphasis was placed on improving the breeding on the BETTER farms. AI was identified as an important tool in doing so.

In 2016, 40% of calves born on the farms were sired by AI bulls. To be fair, that is still well above the national average, which currently sits at just over 15%.

However, since then a lot of farmers within the programme have taken up AI or have increased their usage. In 2019, exactly half (50%) of all calves born were sired by AI.

Number of months with a calving

A long, drawn-out calving spread is a huge negative for any suckler herd. It limits any drive for efficiency.

Since 2016, the BETTER farm group has reduced the number of months with a calving from six down to four, effectively cutting the calving period by 50%.

Number of calvings

Finally, the numbers of calvings on farms increased. While recent figures show that suckler numbers have declined by almost 5% in the last year and they have been falling for the last four years consecutively, the number of calvings on the BETTER farms has climbed in the same period.

In 2016, there were 55 calvings on average per farm. In 2019, there was 60. Impressively, of the 60 calvings, there were 60 live calves born.

Meet the markets

Inside this week’s Irish Farmers Journal, we take a look at the challenge which detailed carcase specifications – the Meet the Markets challenge.