Wet weather conditions are taking their toll right across the country, but in the northwest, conditions are deteriorating quickly.

James Strain runs a herd of 32 cows, calving from December to March, on his farm near Burnfoot, Co Donegal. Bulls are sold in the autumn and heifers are sold in the spring. Because he is in a suckler-to-weanling system, maternal milk is very important.

Since joining the programme in 2012, significant gains have been made through improvements in breeding and grassland management.

The farm consists of 21.3ha of mixed-quality land, some of which is low-lying and difficult in nature. Like many small suckler farmers, James works off-farm full-time, so having a streamlined system that requires low labour input is essential.

Over the years, James has benefited from working with local Teagasc B&T adviser Garry Fisher, who has been instrumental in driving change on the farm. More recently, he has worked closely with Shane McHugh and Catherine Egan as part of the BETTER farm programme.

Cow type

Cow type and numbers have been major focuses on the farm in the past few years. Since joining the programme, James bought in a group of 10 British Friesian cross Hereford heifers.

There has been a major focus on getting more milk into the herd, as milk is the main driver of weaning weight. In recent times, the focus has been on rearing replacement heifers from within the herd.

A maternal Simmental bull was purchased last year. He has a replacement index of €178 or 4.5 stars across breeds. Daughter calving difficulty is low at 3.6% and in terms of daughter milk, he is +6.6kg, which is four stars across breeds with a reliability of 23%.

The objective is to breed all replacements from within the herd and it is hoped that the Simmental bull will breed good-quality replacements, which have good milk and carcase traits and that will cross well with a Charolais terminal sire.

Star ratings

Because a lot of the cows in the herd are dairy crosses and have maternal breeding in their background, they are ranking well on the replacement index.

The ICBF Herd Plus figures show that the average of the herd has a replacement index of five stars across breeds. Maternal milk is the key driver of the high performance on the index, with the cows averaging five stars on daughter milk.

Weight gain

As the only output from the farm is the sale of weanling bulls or heifers, achieving high levels of weight gain is essential to maximising output.

The main bull used on the farm is a terminal Charolais bull out of Pirate. He is a four-star terminal bull, both across and within breeds, and has a terminal index of €127.

With the off-farm work, calving ease is extremely important for James. The Charolais bull has a calving difficulty of 4.5%, which is good.

The weight gains which have been achieved so far this year are very impressive. Table 1 details the weight gains for all calves, bulls and heifers from birth to 7 July.

The bull calves are, on average, younger than the equivalent heifer.

They had an average weight of 313kg in July at 5.7 months of age, while the heifers weighed 295kg on average at 6.5 months of age. The average of all 29 calves was 304kg at 6.1 months.

The bulls have achieved a weight gain of 1.6kg per day, while the heifers had an average weight gain of 1.3kg/day. On average, the 29 calves had an average weight gain of 1.46kg/day.

Grassland management

Grassland management has improved significantly and targeting the correct pre-grazing sward heights has had a significant impact on average daily liveweight gains.

However, wet weather over the past few weeks has started to have an impact on grazing on the farm, as the land is heavy in nature.

In the past few days, the cows and calves have been grazing some of the higher, drier fields on the farm.

One field was damaged slightly last week while being grazed in heavy rain, but the damage was superficial.

Along with more difficult grassland management, grass growth rates have decreased substantially in the past week.

There was a good supply of grass on the farm a week ago, but the average farm cover has reduced quickly, which could have an impact if the colder, wet spell continues.

Second-cut silage will be harvested in the next week or two, or when weather allows. This ground will rejoin the grazing rotation in late August or early September, which will help boost the average farm cover in the autumn.

The short-term difficulty will be trying to boost farm covers over the month of August in the colder weather.

Performance

Table 2 details the financial and physical performance of the farm in 2014 and compares the gross margin to 2013 levels.

The stocking rate has now increased to 2.05LU/ha due to higher cattle numbers. The focus now will be to keep cow numbers at about 32, as the weanling bulls are sold in the autumn and heifers held until early spring.

Beef output has increased to 577kg in 2014 and gross output value was €1,255. Average variable costs totalled about 70% of output in 2014, which is higher than James would like. The target is to have variable costs at about 50% of output.

The reason for the lower output last year was a disease outbreak, which affected output in previous years.

Mortality has been high in previous years. After investigations, the losses were put down to an underlying salmonella outbreak, which they presume entered the herd through a bought-in animal. Since implementing a vaccination programme, mortality and health issues on the farm have decreased.

The gross margin last year was €372/ha, up from a low of €132/ha in 2013.

Increased output is expected to be achieved in the coming two years.

As replacements are being bred within the herd, there is reduced output, but it is evident in the increase in stock numbers and quality of stock.

Adviser comment

Since joining the programme, James has been very focused on improving cow type, maternal milk and output on the farm. Up to now, the gains made have not been fully evident in the profit monitor. However, this year, it is expected that the gross margin will increase, bringing him back in line with other weanling producers on similar land type. Land quality and rainfall is a factor that will impact on his ability to challenge for the top gross margins in the programme, but with reseeding and drainage works which he expects to carry out in the coming years, the stock-carrying capacity of the farm could increase more.

Catherine Egan