Dairy beef delivering for Meath family partnership

The crowd which gathered on the farm of Aidan Maguire, Antylstown, Navan, Co Meath on, Thursday evening for a Dairy Beef 500 farm walk were treated to a masterclass in dairy-beef production.

Farming in a registered farm partnership, Aidan and his son Luke, who recently qualified from Ballyhaise Agricultural College, run a dairy calf-to-beef enterprise alongside a contracting business.

The Maguires farm a total of 70ha, split in three blocks with 54ha in grassland and the remainder being forestry. Land type is good and soil is free-draining, allowing for good grass growth and a high stocking rate to be achieved.

Aidan moved from suckling and tillage in the early noughties due to a heavy workload, both on and off the farm, and their calf-to-beef enterprise has grown from there.

Dairy Beef 500

The farm is a participant in Teagasc’s Dairy Beef 500 programme and since joining the Maguires have moved from selling their livestock as forward stores to bringing them through to finish. A mix of Friesian bulls, Hereford-cross, Angus-cross and some Belgian Blue-cross bulls and heifers are kept.

Calves are sourced from four local dairy farmers and Aidan says: “This is important to ensure uniformity in the calves and to reduce the risk of disease outbreak as the calves are coming from a trusted source.”

Aidan is also meticulous in ensuring that calves are not bought under three weeks of age.

“If any calf looks off form or thin I will refuse to take him. Buying at three weeks ensures they are over the main risk period for rotavirus scour and any health setbacks,such as scours, are easier to cure at this stage.”

Calves are generally bought in bunches of nine or 10 and the dairy farmer contacts Aidan when calves are ready for collection.

“I have a good relationship with these dairy farmers and at this stage they know to remove poorer or off-form calves from the bunch before I collect them.”

Calves are not being bought solely off commercial beef value (CBV) figures but Aidan and Luke say they will place more of an emphasis on this.

No Friesian calf with a CBV of less than €0 or beef calves with a CBV below €100 will be bought.

Calves are fed 3l of milk replacer once a day on 10 teat feeders and also have access to ad-lib meal and straw from the early stages.

Calves are vaccinated against pneumonia before weaning with an initial shot being administered after arrival and a booster shot one month later.

A vaccination programme for IBR is also in place. Preventative treatment against coccidiosis is administered during the rearing stage as the farm has had issues in the past, with Aidan pointing out that an underlying coccidiosis burden in 2023 led to poorer daily liveweight gains in grazing stock.

Calves arrive on farm at an average weight of 45kg with a targeted daily liveweight gain of 0.75kg for the rearing period, with bulls and heifers being weaned in mid-May at 95kg and 90kg, respectively. Aidan says: “Calves will have consumed about 23kg of milk powder at this stage and are consuming about 2kg of meal.”

Calves are introduced to grass through the use of on-off grazing. Calves are typically introduced to grass for three to four hours a day and return to the shed at night for meal and straw.

This approach is also taken when returning yearling cattle to grass, with Aidan emphasising that it allows him to get grass into the diet of cattle early in the year, helping to reduce silage use and costs and creating less dietary upsets when cattle are turned out full time.

Calves are offered 1kg of meal for the entire first grazing season with yearling cattle on grass only.

Grassland management is a key driver of the positive performance attained.

Grass is measured regularly with 40 grass walks being logged on the farm last year.

The farm is split into 1ha paddocks with access from roadways, meaning grass utilisation is excellent.

Aidan says that the measuring and investment in grazing of grass has been the single most important measure he has taken up in recent years, with the farm achieving over 240 days at grass with livestock.

Cheapest form of weight gain

“If I thought I could get 300 days at grass I would. It’s my cheapest form of weight gain,” says Aidan.

The farm grew 12.9t grass DM/ha in 2023 with 158 units/acre of chemical nitrogen used.

Soil fertility is good with 80% of the farm recorded at index 3 or 4 for K and Aidan remarks this is down to regular soil sampling coupled with targeted use of slurry and fertiliser.

“Since Luke has come on board, better records are being kept. We are making better use of our slurry.”

The farm puts a huge emphasis on making good-quality silage, with 80% of silage now being made from red clover. Around 2ha of the farm is reseeded each year with this being put into red clover and remaining as silage ground for three to four years before returning back to a grass sward.

Red clover silage has tested as high as 78% DMD with a protein content of 15%. This has helped to reduce concentrate usage and achieve cheaper weight gain across the first winter.

Aidan comments that because there is silage harvesting equipment on farm and he does the work himself, he is nearly always able to make silage in favourable conditions.

All cattle on the farm are brought through to finish as 18- to 20-month heifers or 20- to 24-month steers, with 47 steers currently housed for finishing and receiving 5kg of meal.

Heifers remain at grass with targeted meal feeding of heifers to start within the next two weeks.

Steers are finished off farm at a target liveweight of 620kg with heifers going out at 520kg.

The farm kills all cattle through the Twenty20 Scheme where cattle are booked in at the beginning of the year and slaughtered when fit through Kepak.

Continental-sired animals slaughtered through the scheme receive a bonus of 40c/kg plus 20c Quality Payment System (QPS) payment with Angus and Herefords receiving a 50c payment along with the QPS payment. Friesian steers receive a 30c/kg bonus.

This is paid on all grades once they fall between 260kg and 400kg carcase weight.

Table 1 outlines slaughter performance.

The close attention to detail inside the farm gate, good grassland management, good animal health, the location of the farm and its dry nature allowing a heavy stocking rate, early turnout and extended grazing season have all played a role in making this a profitable enterprise for Aidan and Luke Maguire.

The farm boasted a net margin in 2023 of €736/ha excluding farm supports, giving the Maguires encouragement that their system is working.

An outline of financial performance is outlined in Table 2 below.