Ken Graham isn’t your typical part-time farmer. Having completed his studies in engineering, he took up a full-time maintenance contract job with a local company and also embarked on his journey into farming.
“A large proportion of the land I am farming was all bought so that means I have to make things work to make money to meet repayments,” Ken says. The farm is split across three different blocks – 60 acres, 40 acres and a 10ac tillage field. “The fact that the farm is split up adds complications and mostly time when completing tasks, but we try and to manage it as best we can.”
Table 1 outlines Ken’s performance when compared with the national average and he’s punching above his weight when it comes to number of key performance indicators. The farm is producing almost double the amount of output of the average farm in the country. The herd’s calving interval is also 15 days shorter than the national average. In terms of profitability, Ken is up there with the high performers. In 2017, a gross margin of €981 was recorded on the farm. Like on many other farms, 2018 was a different story, with a drop to €634/ha. Extra feed costs during the drought last summer made up much of this increased expense.
Time management
Ken operates the farm on a part-time basis. This means bigger jobs are carried out at the weekends and on holidays. He is also married with a young family, so time management is critical to the smooth running of all operations. “I try to keep things as simple as I can. I invested in sheds and infrastructure around the farm to facilitate minimum time spent doing tasks like moving stock or feeding stock. A tight calving interval helps. I take on some extra help for the nine weeks of calving and we are fully switched on to calving and keeping calves alive during this time. The biggest bonus with tight calving for me is having a uniform group of stock so that other tasks can be completed on the same day. I can vaccinate for pneumonia, dose or weigh the herd on one day, cutting down on the number of times stock have to be brought in and handled.” 
Ken places big emphasis on stock performance and invested in a weighing crate.
When it comes to selling stock, it’s the same story, with bulls all ready to slaughter over a short period.
If time spent at tasks is the focus, it means you get sharper at completing tasks. An example of this is making bales. Up to 300 bales were made on the farm some years, but Ken now sees them as time-consuming.
IGA spread.
This year he has moved to taking an extra cut of silage for the pit and cut paddocks out that are too strong at the same time. Contractors are used for most of the tasks on the farm with the bare minimum of machinery.
“I keep a good tractor with a loader, a fertiliser spreader, topper and trailer and that’s about it,” he says.
Grassland management
The 40ha of grassland on the farm is split up into 34 paddocks, with approximately 1.2ha (3 acres) in each paddock. Once stock get used to the system, it’s very easy to move them around the farm or get them into the yard for handling. “We focus on getting the maximum amount of days at grass during the year. It’s a mixed farm with some of the land quite heavy in nature. All of the farm has been reseeded in the past 10 years, with some of the land needing major reclamation work completed. I don’t measure grass, however I know my demand figure and I watch the growth rates in the Irish Farmers Journal every week and I can then make decisions based on where growth and demand is. We make up groups to suit 1.5- to two-day paddocks and try and keep group size big and the number of groups to a minimum.”
Cows and calves are grazed together in one group to facilitate ease of management during the grazing season.
An emphasis has been placed on soil fertility. “I soil-sampled for GLAS and found out my P and K soil indices were on the floor. We spread lime and have been spreading compound fertiliser ever since and I can see the farm starting to change in terms of grass growth.”
Breeding
Suckler cows on the farm are predominantly Limousin and Simmental-cross. The farm changed from selling weanlings to finishing a number of years ago. “I was running to the mart with weanlings for a couple of months, which was very time-consuming. We now kill the bulls in two to three groups. The lorry comes at 6.30am and I can be at work for 8am, which works better for me.”
Ken uses stock bulls and looks for a balanced bull with a good replacement index and a good terminal index. Ease of calving is also a must, with 7% being the limit that Ken is not willing to go over: “We are trying to breed our own replacements so milk and fertility is up there with the most important traits.”
It’s my theory that if a heifer doesn’t go in calf after two cycles
When selecting heifers for breeding, he uses the replacement index as a tool and aims to pick heifers that are above the herd average so he is improving all the time. Heifers get just two cycles with an Angus bull.
When questioned on this, Ken says: “It’s my theory that if a heifer doesn’t go in calf after two cycles, I don’t think she is fertile enough to stay in the herd. I suppose it’s my way of trying to eliminate fertility problems in the future.”
Programme participation
Ken is a participant in BDGP: “It’s a huge financial boost to this farm and I don’t think I would be able to farm without it.” He is also a participant in BEEP and GLAS. “I can’t afford to ignore the financial contribution that schemes and supports make to this farm so I participate in anything I can. It’s generally paying you to do the right thing so participating is a no-brainer for me.”
Land: 44ha
(110 acres).
Cows: 55 suckler cows.
Breed: Limousin/Simmental/Angus stock bulls.
System:
Finishing under-16-month bulls and 21-month heifers.
Labour: Part-time basis with casual labour.
Schemes: GLAS, BDGP and BEEP participant.
On schemes: “I can’t afford to ignore the financial contribution that schemes and supports make to this farm so I participate in anything I can.”
On time management: “Working off the farm makes you get very efficient with your time on the farm because you have no other choice.”
On climate change: If hedgerows and trees are taken into account for carbon sequestration and I own the trees and hedgerows, then I think I should be paid for this sequestration.
On breeding: “Restricting breeding to nine to 10 weeks has been one of the best decisions I have made on the farm. It affects the management of so many other things.”
On grassland management: “I used to think reseeding was the answer to better grassland management but now I know that soil fertility comes before reseeding.
On animal health: “I put huge emphasis on colostrum and getting it into calves and I feel this is better than any vaccination programme I can implement”
Irish Grassland
Association beef
conference preview
The Irish Grassland Association national beef conference takes place in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, Co Laois, on Thursday 20 June at 10am.
The indoor morning session will hear Aidan Murray, Teagasc beef specialist, talk on whether suckler farming can be profitable.
John Geraghty, agricultural consultant, will give a presentation on soil health and what farmers can do to improve it.
Matthew Dempsey, chair of the Agricultural Trust, will present a paper on the Irish beef industry, past, present and future.
The second indoor session will see a panel discussion with Robin Talbot, Eddie Connell and Thomas O’Connor chaired by Stan Lalor of Grassland Agro.
The afternoon session will be the farm visit to Ken Graham’s farm. Topics will include a farm overview, stock performance, breeding, grassland management and economic performance.
Anybody wishing to book tickets for the event should contact Maura Callery on 087-962 6483 or book online at www.irishgrassland.ie
Ken Graham isn’t your typical part-time farmer. Having completed his studies in engineering, he took up a full-time maintenance contract job with a local company and also embarked on his journey into farming.
“A large proportion of the land I am farming was all bought so that means I have to make things work to make money to meet repayments,” Ken says. The farm is split across three different blocks – 60 acres, 40 acres and a 10ac tillage field. “The fact that the farm is split up adds complications and mostly time when completing tasks, but we try and to manage it as best we can.”
Table 1 outlines Ken’s performance when compared with the national average and he’s punching above his weight when it comes to number of key performance indicators. The farm is producing almost double the amount of output of the average farm in the country. The herd’s calving interval is also 15 days shorter than the national average. In terms of profitability, Ken is up there with the high performers. In 2017, a gross margin of €981 was recorded on the farm. Like on many other farms, 2018 was a different story, with a drop to €634/ha. Extra feed costs during the drought last summer made up much of this increased expense.
Time management
Ken operates the farm on a part-time basis. This means bigger jobs are carried out at the weekends and on holidays. He is also married with a young family, so time management is critical to the smooth running of all operations. “I try to keep things as simple as I can. I invested in sheds and infrastructure around the farm to facilitate minimum time spent doing tasks like moving stock or feeding stock. A tight calving interval helps. I take on some extra help for the nine weeks of calving and we are fully switched on to calving and keeping calves alive during this time. The biggest bonus with tight calving for me is having a uniform group of stock so that other tasks can be completed on the same day. I can vaccinate for pneumonia, dose or weigh the herd on one day, cutting down on the number of times stock have to be brought in and handled.”
Ken places big emphasis on stock performance and invested in a weighing crate.
When it comes to selling stock, it’s the same story, with bulls all ready to slaughter over a short period.
If time spent at tasks is the focus, it means you get sharper at completing tasks. An example of this is making bales. Up to 300 bales were made on the farm some years, but Ken now sees them as time-consuming.
IGA spread.
This year he has moved to taking an extra cut of silage for the pit and cut paddocks out that are too strong at the same time. Contractors are used for most of the tasks on the farm with the bare minimum of machinery.
“I keep a good tractor with a loader, a fertiliser spreader, topper and trailer and that’s about it,” he says.
Grassland management
The 40ha of grassland on the farm is split up into 34 paddocks, with approximately 1.2ha (3 acres) in each paddock. Once stock get used to the system, it’s very easy to move them around the farm or get them into the yard for handling. “We focus on getting the maximum amount of days at grass during the year. It’s a mixed farm with some of the land quite heavy in nature. All of the farm has been reseeded in the past 10 years, with some of the land needing major reclamation work completed. I don’t measure grass, however I know my demand figure and I watch the growth rates in the Irish Farmers Journal every week and I can then make decisions based on where growth and demand is. We make up groups to suit 1.5- to two-day paddocks and try and keep group size big and the number of groups to a minimum.”
Cows and calves are grazed together in one group to facilitate ease of management during the grazing season.
An emphasis has been placed on soil fertility. “I soil-sampled for GLAS and found out my P and K soil indices were on the floor. We spread lime and have been spreading compound fertiliser ever since and I can see the farm starting to change in terms of grass growth.”
Breeding
Suckler cows on the farm are predominantly Limousin and Simmental-cross. The farm changed from selling weanlings to finishing a number of years ago. “I was running to the mart with weanlings for a couple of months, which was very time-consuming. We now kill the bulls in two to three groups. The lorry comes at 6.30am and I can be at work for 8am, which works better for me.”
Ken uses stock bulls and looks for a balanced bull with a good replacement index and a good terminal index. Ease of calving is also a must, with 7% being the limit that Ken is not willing to go over: “We are trying to breed our own replacements so milk and fertility is up there with the most important traits.”
It’s my theory that if a heifer doesn’t go in calf after two cycles
When selecting heifers for breeding, he uses the replacement index as a tool and aims to pick heifers that are above the herd average so he is improving all the time. Heifers get just two cycles with an Angus bull.
When questioned on this, Ken says: “It’s my theory that if a heifer doesn’t go in calf after two cycles, I don’t think she is fertile enough to stay in the herd. I suppose it’s my way of trying to eliminate fertility problems in the future.”
Programme participation
Ken is a participant in BDGP: “It’s a huge financial boost to this farm and I don’t think I would be able to farm without it.” He is also a participant in BEEP and GLAS. “I can’t afford to ignore the financial contribution that schemes and supports make to this farm so I participate in anything I can. It’s generally paying you to do the right thing so participating is a no-brainer for me.”
Land: 44ha
(110 acres).
Cows: 55 suckler cows.
Breed: Limousin/Simmental/Angus stock bulls.
System:
Finishing under-16-month bulls and 21-month heifers.
Labour: Part-time basis with casual labour.
Schemes: GLAS, BDGP and BEEP participant.
On schemes: “I can’t afford to ignore the financial contribution that schemes and supports make to this farm so I participate in anything I can.”
On time management: “Working off the farm makes you get very efficient with your time on the farm because you have no other choice.”
On climate change: If hedgerows and trees are taken into account for carbon sequestration and I own the trees and hedgerows, then I think I should be paid for this sequestration.
On breeding: “Restricting breeding to nine to 10 weeks has been one of the best decisions I have made on the farm. It affects the management of so many other things.”
On grassland management: “I used to think reseeding was the answer to better grassland management but now I know that soil fertility comes before reseeding.
On animal health: “I put huge emphasis on colostrum and getting it into calves and I feel this is better than any vaccination programme I can implement”
Irish Grassland
Association beef
conference preview
The Irish Grassland Association national beef conference takes place in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, Co Laois, on Thursday 20 June at 10am.
The indoor morning session will hear Aidan Murray, Teagasc beef specialist, talk on whether suckler farming can be profitable.
John Geraghty, agricultural consultant, will give a presentation on soil health and what farmers can do to improve it.
Matthew Dempsey, chair of the Agricultural Trust, will present a paper on the Irish beef industry, past, present and future.
The second indoor session will see a panel discussion with Robin Talbot, Eddie Connell and Thomas O’Connor chaired by Stan Lalor of Grassland Agro.
The afternoon session will be the farm visit to Ken Graham’s farm. Topics will include a farm overview, stock performance, breeding, grassland management and economic performance.
Anybody wishing to book tickets for the event should contact Maura Callery on 087-962 6483 or book online at www.irishgrassland.ie
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