FBD €uro-Star €200 herd competition: Connacht/Ulster commercial finalists

My farm

I farm approximately 33.5ha just outside Athenry in Co Galway. The farm was previously a dairy farm but converted to suckler some time ago. The system on the farm is suckler-to-steer beef. The farm is in one block and is relatively free draining but there are some heavy lower areas with poor drainage on the farm. As I am working off farm full–time, I also get some help from my father PJ.

Animals

We run a suckler herd of about 30 suckler cows on the farm and use a stock bull. The cow type is mainly Limousin and Angus crosses. Having bred the foundation stock from the dairy herd, the cows still have milk. There has been a strong focus on keeping as much milk and maternal traits in replacements as possible. The majority of the cows on the farm are four or five stars and we are trying to replace the two and three star cows with four or five star heifers.

Sires

We use some AI and a stock bull. We have run a maternal Limousin bull with the cows in the past. He was a Ronick Hawk son with a replacement value of €113. He had a terminal index of €108 and is three stars across breeds. As I am working off farm, calving difficultly is important. He was 4% for calving difficulty and +25kg on carcase weight. We have heifers on the ground out of PAM, SKU, RHI, EBY, JZJ,and RWV.

BDGP

BDGP was a natural fit for us. As we have been keeping an eye on maternal traits down through the years and recording as much information as possible, we are able to meet the criteria of the scheme without any difficulty. Fifteen of the cows are either four or five stars and there are another 22 heifers on the farm that are four or five stars also.

Quotable Quote

“Milk, docility and calving difficulty have been the most important points when breeding replacements on the farm”

Breeding key performance indicators

My farm

I farm approximately 36ha in Dromard, Co Sligo. The farm is made up of owned land and leased land and is in four different parcels. The majority of the farm is dry and free draining, but there are some wetter fields also. This year, I took on an additional 30 acres of rented land which reduced my stocking rate as I am still building cow numbers. I have also constructed a new slatted shed with a calf creep, which will allow me to get up to the target of 50 cows.

Animals

I have 43 cows and heifers bulled to calve down in 2019. The herd is an autumn calving herd, with the target to calve all cows from August to October. I have been using Salers for a good few years now and am very happy with the performance. There are also some Belgian Blue and Limousin cross cows on the farm.

Sires

There is no stock bull on the farm and all cows are served to AI. As the herd is autumn calving, the target is to get all cows served to AI once outdoors prior to housing. I am selecting about 10 AI bulls per year that are all five stars on the maternal index, that are positive for milk and have good carcase traits.

The Salers bulls I am using are SA2153, RIO and ZLA. The main Limousin bulls used are ZAG, Tomschoice, Ironstone, LM2116, Grenache, LM4351 and G2P

BDGP

BDGP has worked well for me, but I have been using the €uroStar index prior to it to achieve my breeding goals. The scheme may have been a little too complicated and may have lost farmers at the start. If the scheme was a little more simplistic it would have been easier to get more farmers to buy-in.

Quotable quote:

“A lot of my best 2018 born heifer calves have a replacement index of over €200, I am starting to find it a little more difficult to find bulls of high replacement values to use on these going forward.’’

Breeding key performance indicators

My farm

We farm 70 acres with about 60 acres available for grazing and 10 acres of bog. I farm full–time and my wife works full–time, so I slot in for school pick-ups etc, during the week.

Farming is a really good fit for our family and during the quiet times, I have loads of spare time for family life.

Animals

We run 50 cows calving everything from mid-August to mid-October.

I’m not tied to a specific cow type, if a cow is doing a job, she stays, if she isn’t doing a job, she goes. I don’t have any favourites and there are no free loaders.

We were using 100% AI but ran into an issue last year with empty cows, so switched to a bull but we will still use AI. Our aim is to get bulls to 500kg around 12 months and sell them to a local feedlot.

Sires

We focus on the replacement index when selecting sires and we generally get a decent quality bull calf for sale.

We wouldn’t be operating at the very top end but we get very good weight for age and I find that’s important. We have used QCD, ISL, Biouvac, SI2469.

BDGP

I joined at the start and think it’s a no brainer for a suckler farmer. We need all the support we can get.

I have started now to look beyond the overall index and drill down into sub indexes like carcase traits and milk.

I can then match my cows with specific bulls to pull them up in certain areas.

Quotable quote

“I like a tight calving pattern. It’s hard enough to make money without having to calve cows five or six months of the year when it can easily be done in three.

I want to have a certain quality of life alongside the farm.”

Breeding key performance indicators