We farm: “About 180ac with 30 suckler cows and rearing 60 to 70 dairy calves to beef.”
Suckler: “We’re not fully suckler, we’re more into the dairy calf to beef. The dairy calves are a mix of Hereford and Angus bullocks and heifers. They are easier to finish and fatten than Friesians, we try to get them finished at 20 months. The suckler cows are mostly Limousin with Charolais and Belgian Blue bulls.”
Weanlings: “The Charolais weanlings are always the highest priced in the marts; they’re good mothers and good breeders. The Blues were for a bit of style and the Limousin cows are good milkers. We calved 13 in the spring and then we’ll have the rest of them, about 13 as well, in the autumn.”
Pedigree: “We’ve a few pedigree Charolais as well. We like to do a bit of showing, we’ve been doing it for 25 years, mostly local shows like Strokestown. If we had anything good, we’d hit for Tullamore [Show].”
This week: “We’re reseeding 14ac with red clover going in there today. We tried it before; we had about 9ac sowed with it at the back of the house and we’ve got three cuts off it every year so far. It was cut the second week of May; the second-cut was there last week.”
Machinery: “We’ve an automatic feeder for the calves; it takes a lot of the workload out of it.”
Social farming: “My wife, Anne, does social farming. It’s for some of the local charities or from the school, they come out for four or five hours a week. You have to have meaningful jobs for them to do, they get some kick out of it and they enjoy being out with the animals.”
Partnership: “We’re in partnership for the last year. This is the first year of it but hopefully I [Cian] can take it over after that. I finished the Green Cert in Mountbellew.”
My Farming Week: Gerry and Anne Beirne, who run suckler and calf to beef herds in Tullyloyd, Co Roscommon. \ Philip Doyle
\ Philip Doyle
We farm: “About 180ac with 30 suckler cows and rearing 60 to 70 dairy calves to beef.”
Suckler: “We’re not fully suckler, we’re more into the dairy calf to beef. The dairy calves are a mix of Hereford and Angus bullocks and heifers. They are easier to finish and fatten than Friesians, we try to get them finished at 20 months. The suckler cows are mostly Limousin with Charolais and Belgian Blue bulls.”
Weanlings: “The Charolais weanlings are always the highest priced in the marts; they’re good mothers and good breeders. The Blues were for a bit of style and the Limousin cows are good milkers. We calved 13 in the spring and then we’ll have the rest of them, about 13 as well, in the autumn.”
Pedigree: “We’ve a few pedigree Charolais as well. We like to do a bit of showing, we’ve been doing it for 25 years, mostly local shows like Strokestown. If we had anything good, we’d hit for Tullamore [Show].”
This week: “We’re reseeding 14ac with red clover going in there today. We tried it before; we had about 9ac sowed with it at the back of the house and we’ve got three cuts off it every year so far. It was cut the second week of May; the second-cut was there last week.”
Machinery: “We’ve an automatic feeder for the calves; it takes a lot of the workload out of it.”
Social farming: “My wife, Anne, does social farming. It’s for some of the local charities or from the school, they come out for four or five hours a week. You have to have meaningful jobs for them to do, they get some kick out of it and they enjoy being out with the animals.”
Partnership: “We’re in partnership for the last year. This is the first year of it but hopefully I [Cian] can take it over after that. I finished the Green Cert in Mountbellew.”
My Farming Week: Gerry and Anne Beirne, who run suckler and calf to beef herds in Tullyloyd, Co Roscommon. \ Philip Doyle
\ Philip Doyle
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