Nigel O’Kane keeps 21 suckler cows near Claregalway in Galway. At 22ha, Nigel’s farm isn’t the biggest in the programme, but at this point it’s one of the most progressive operations.

Working off-farm as a plumber, Nigel has developed a system that works with his busy schedule.

“Ninety per cent of the herd calves in eight weeks here, beginning in February. I was involved in a synchronisation trial with UCD a few years ago and we achieved up on 70% conception rates. It really helped to tighten the thing up and I’ve done a couple more runs of it since,” Nigel said.

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Nigel’s cow herd is Charolais-backboned, but strong for maternal traits.

“While you’ll see a lot of white in my herd, I was selecting maternal genetics well before it was the done thing. You’ll see sires like Voimo (€184 replacement index), Bondi Jacob (€106 replacement index) and Nippur (€125 replacement index) in the cow herd.

The stats

The herd has a calving interval of 367 days, 0% mortality and a calves/cow/year figure of 0.95. In 2017, 17 of Nigel’s calves were by AI sires.

“I had a good calving year this year, with no losses. Bulls such as ZAG, FSZ, LZF, LM2151, LM2117, ZGH and LM2214 were used, and while some of these would be close to 10% calving difficulty, I pick and choose based on the cow and her history. Obviously, with my off-farm job, I need easy calvings and thankfully the jack was very quiet this spring.

Traditionally a weanling and store seller, the combination of a TB reactor in 2016 and his learnings from BETTER farm so far is pushing Nigel towards a finishing system.

“I’m looking to push the thing a bit. This year I had planned to finish my male calves as bulls in the back end, with them getting a stint at grass until mid-summer. However, we’re on a free-draining loam soil here and with the hot weather a few weeks ago, grass growth flat-lined. I had to bring the bulls in and now I’m finishing them out of the shed. We’ll get some away under 16 months of age, but some will inevitably go over the age. Factories seem keen for cattle at present. Hopefully the situation is similar when I go to sell the older bulls and there’ll be no issues with specification.

Nigel’s beef heifers will be slaughtered in October and November from now on, coming in from grass for a swift finish in August and September. The continental breeding in his heifers means that they will respond well to meals in the shed, which in turn will ensure all are fleshed and off the farm before a second winter – freeing up vital shed space.

Even before joining the BETTER farm programme, Nigel had begun to increase farm output from means other than his suckler herd. In 2016, 24 Friesian bull calves were brought on to the farm, with 16 in so far this year.

“The calves are a simple, cheap way of getting more heads on the ground. They’re easier managed too. You have to be realistic – even on the most efficient farms, a suckler cow takes a lot of work. Calves are easy to get into and we are good at the rearing at this stage. I’d give around €150 for a strong calf and sell him on as a store then the following summer at hopefully around €850. The aim is to go to the mart in the weeks before the [Galway] Races. Prices are generally strong at this time in these parts, dipping after the festival by around €50/head – maybe because there’s too much money lost on the horses.”

Nigel is hoping to move to 30 cows, with 30 bought-in Friesian calves coming in annually.

“Thirty suckler cows is our maximum here, in my head anyway. The farm is fragmented, but I always keep cows and calves on this block around the house (24 acres). I am not going to start putting cows and calves on trailers and I feel that 30 would be the limit for what I can carry here. I’ll use the other land for the beef and bought-in stock.”

Normally a big advocate for the use of AI, Nigel is reconsidering his breeding strategy. His yard has been a building site in recent months, as a new slatted unit takes shape, reducing his ability to handle cows for AI there. Nigel’s stock bull, a four-star TZL-sired animal, has been working the herd instead.

“In your typical year he would go in to mop up, but he’ll have sired most of my calves next year. It’s only when you stop the AI that you realise the work that goes into it. I don’t think I’ll ever completely stop using it, but if I get a good calf crop from the bull next year I might use more stock bulls in future. The heifers will always be submitted for AI here. They need their own bull and it doesn’t make sense on a farm this size. The team has advised me to pick my 10 best cows and run them with the heifers for AI, using maternal sires to breed replacements. I like the idea of that and would probably go with Simmental.”

Nigel has opted to partake in the breeding, soil health and labour challenges during his stint in the programme.

To pass the breeding challenges he must increase his herd’s average replacement index by €20, which he should be able to do if he opts for high-index Simmental sires to breed replacements. He must also hit generic best-practice targets for reproductive KPIs such as calving interval, mortality, calves/cow/year etc.

The soil health challenge will involve Nigel correcting farm soil pH, and P and K concentrations. At present, 80% of his soils are at optimum pH, but just 10% and 20% are on target for P and K respectively.

The labour challenge is an important one for Nigel. During each of the main seasons on the farm he will record precisely how much time he is spending on the farm. While his €/hour worked figure should rise naturally in line with the farms margins, we will scrutinise his working days and look for avenues to streamline the farm from a labour point of view.