The farm has 92ha of grassland which is stocked at 2.22 LU/ha. The land is feeling the effects of drought. Stock was one day away from grazing second-cut silage when the visitors arrived.

“The crop is static and will start melting away soon if not used," said Billy. They have two of the three silage pits filled and are hopeful for a good second cut.

Bulls, aged 17 months, on the Nicholson farm, average weight was 640 kg on 28 June.

Beef

Livestock on the farm are 120 suckler cows plus replacement stock. The average livestock units in the herd last year were 207. The beef output per LU on the Nicholson farm is 395kg. Bulls are taken to under-16-month beef, but there are 21 animals housed indoors currently at 17 months due to the lack of grass this year. They are to be slaughtered in three weeks' time.

Calving

Calving season begins in December and finishes in March. Currently the calf-to-cow ratio is 0.97. All the heifers are calved at 22-26 months and the herd's six-week calving rate is 83%. Niall and Billy emphasised they are a commercial herd, so cows not rearing a calf are culled. It costs €480.30 to feed a suckler cow on the farm. Keeping an empty cow will cost the farm €5,600, so they just don’t do it.

BDGP

Billy and Niall are part of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP). According to Billy he “can’t justify buying a bull without the figures to back him up”. Forty cows were put in calf to AI last year, with five stock bulls running with the herd thereafter. Niall accepted there are fluctuations in the BDGP system, but that’s just part of it.

Farm walk? Attendees of the farm walk were well looked after, as all transport costs were covered.

Bulls are picked with maternal and terminal traits taking priority. Niall is fond of the Saler breed as “they have a good, square frame, and they can take hard-calving bulls as by nature they have a wider pelvis - they have the data to back them up now as well”.

Tillage

This year the farm is growing 18ha of fodder beet for winter feed. Fodder beet is doing reasonably well this year as it soaks up sunshine. In April 30ha of spring barley was planted on the farm. They see a significant difference in fields where sowing date differentiated by a few days. Moss peat will be used as an alternative to straw bedding this year.

“We can go through up to 700 bales of straw in a winter and we simply won’t have it this year,” said Niall.

In the video below Niall discusses the farm system and the challenges the sector will face in the coming years.

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