“I look for invisibility,” Tommy says, “she should work away on her own. That means calving, going back in calf again quickly, staying healthy, needing little or no supplement feeding and not being awkward to handle.

“Suckler farming is a great way of life, but at the end of the day there is life outside farming. My cows need to work for me, rather than me working for them. Beef will never be €20/kg, but I believe that the right suckler herd can provide a healthy return on the hours put in. That’s what I’m after.”

Tommy calves 61 purebred Simmental cows on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean at Ardfield in Co Cork.

Why Simmental?

"It works for us," Tommy says. He reminisces that his father went to buy a pedigree Limousin bull back in 1999.

"He chose a Simmental instead because they had heavier weight for age and were cheaper. We had about 20 cows at the time so value was important. I wasn't impressed at all with Dad's choice initially but it provided a way into pedigree cattle, something which I always wanted, so we went back and purchased two heifers a couple of months later. We made a decision then to not buy in any more females and breed from what we had."

The herd begins calving in early February and finishes in the last week of April. When we visited Tommy, he was about to go on the road with a local drama group.

"Dad checks the cameras from home and is on standby if required. We have confidence in our cows’ ability to calve on their own - that and being organised for different possibilities allows me to do what I do outside of the farm. Ireland is a small island too so I travel home each night."

“There’ll be no problems,” he assures us. "I’ve only helped six so far and four were sets of twins that we identified; the others were two heifers that needed a vet.”

Focus on docility

No cow gets a chance in Ardfield. Empty cows aren’t kept, nor are misbehavers. Tommy has put a big focus on docility and will even avoid bloodlines that he has found difficult when selecting replacement heifers. There are no sticks used on the farm, resulting in calmer stock. A testament to just how docile his herd has become is evident post-calving. It’s rare, but in the incidence that a newborn calf needs to be guided in for its first milk, cows do not have to be locked in a head-gate.

Tommy has seen how ruthless selection has benefited other beef farmers across the globe and is applying the same principles here. Another interesting criteria he uses is percentage of cow weight weaning – a very popular yardstick when it comes to culling decisions in North America.

“Calving, docility and fertility – hugely important. But at the end of the day, we’re selling weight, be it live or carcase. I want my cows weaning 45-50% of their bodyweight. We’re running around 47% at the moment. A birth weight average of 40kg and having weaning bulls from the mature cows over 350kg is ideal, 300kg is the target for a bull calf from a first-calver.

"We’re achieving the birth targets and close to the weaning weight one – let them grow on the outside, I always say. In terms of the cow size, I want a medium-sized, low-maintenance animal. We fed 71kg of meal here in total to cows post-calving last year and 90kg this year due to extra twins."

Weight is just one of the many variables that Tommy measures on the farm. Calves are weighed at birth, mid-season and weaning. Bulls are weighed during finishing and on point of slaughter and cows at weaning.

"Some of the younger ones aren’t impressed when I push them to graze to 4cm but hunger is a great weapon for moving cattle"

Cows and grass – the two areas Tommy pushes almost pedantically

Tommy’s 46 hectares are split into three blocks across 11 miles. Soil varies across the three blocks from sandy and free-draining, ideal for early turnout but prone to drought in the summer time, to ground that is prone to flooding.

“We got yearling heifers out on 19 January [2017] by day and had calved cows out full-time in late February. A few wet weeks scuppered things slightly, as they did for everyone, but we were largely OK.

"You see what the dairy guys are doing with grass – what’s stopping us from doing the same? It’s the same animal. Experimenting and failing a few times has shown what's possible and what's not in terms of early grazing.”

Tommy tries to operate three-day paddocks with group size determining the success or otherwise. One of his blocks is 24 hectares, split into a whopping 38 paddocks, while another is eight hectares is split 10 ways. He is adamant that the paddock system lends itself to more docile cattle.

“It takes a bit of getting used to initially – some of the younger ones aren’t impressed when I push them to graze to 4cm. But with a bit of training they come around quickly. It helps me too: hunger is a great weapon for moving cattle.”

He tries to reseed a portion of the farm each year, doing five acres in 2016 and planning more in 2017. He is a big advocate in the power of clover as a natural nitrogen source and incorporates it into every mix at reseeding. Grass varieties with good growth in the year’s shoulders are among Tommy’s favourites, with some kiwi grass used in recent years to good effect.

“We’re grass farmers, but I’d be against the idea of pumping nitrogen fertiliser out around the clock. I work extremely hard on soil P and K levels – testing biannually. We’re all index 4 and our pH levels are all optimum. I’m tactical with slurry too. With the paddocks, the clover and the soil fertility, the fertiliser bill has been halved here in recent years and we’re carrying more stock on the same ground. Also, I have no dedicated silage area as such. From the middle of May to the end of July we’re making silage every fortnight from paddocks that have gone too strong. In 2016 the test results came back at 72% DMD, which I was happy with.”

Finishing school

Up until relatively recently, the farm produced stores for sale at Skibbereen or Bandon mart. A discussion group visit to Kanturk suckler and beef farmer Margaret Lehane opened Tommy's eyes to just how simple a good finishing system could be. There were no diet feeders or fancy facilities.

“It was a bin-and-buckets job – precisely what we have here. I’ll admit, it was strange looking at cattle in the house in May and June. We had toyed with the idea of finishing for a few years but lacked confidence in our ability to do it as well as feeling facilities weren't good enough. I had touched base with the mill and they recommended a diet for me and I’ve been producing bulls for slaughter at 15 months of age ever since.

"In 2016, our average carcase weight, warts and all, was 344kg. Eighty-six per cent of the bulls graded R+ and above and 96% had a fat score of 3 and over.

” There is plenty scope to rise carcase weight and the 2016 figure includes animals who went wrong too. We still have the L plates on in terms of finishing cattle."

Health-conscious

“We have our blips, like everyone. In 2013 it was rumen fluke and it’s still hanging around, which is frustrating. Interestingly, I’m seeing that there are a few cow families in the herd that seem to be more susceptible to fluke – a potential selection criteria down the line perhaps.

"In 2013, we got our first incidence of rumen fluke and rotavirus; that combination gutted us and was the catalyst for moving into finishing. There was a point when you were afraid to open the shed door. There were 15 of 60 calves lost. Among all of the disaster that year, I found slight comfort in the fact that while we were at 19% mortality, we were still above the average Irish calves/cow/year figure, according to ICBF.

"Some of our soils are deficient in a couple of trace minerals too, namely copper on one of the outfarms, which is obviously not ideal from a fertility point of view. Parts of the farm are not too hot on iodine either, but look, we tested for these things and can now take action. If you don’t measure, you can’t manage.”

Nuffield Experience

“My system is not everyone’s cup of tea but I'm a big believer in each to their own. The Nuffield experience made me question a lot of what myself and indeed the industry as a whole were doing. A cow needs to work for you. If she ticks the boxes you want, nothing else matters. Who cares how she looks?

"Seeing beef cows in different environments was eye-opening. I did some of my college work experience on a beef farm in France so it was interesting to see suckler cows outside the EU. The scale of the competition and lack of panic stood out as the initial differences.

"Having seen what we’re up against and what we have, I fully intend to enjoy my time farming. In many respects, we have it far easier than many other farmers around the world.

"A 600-cow herd that is closed to all outside genetics since 1937 was probably the standout visit. It showed what natural selection could do.

"Being quizzed on European agriculture by the regional board of Beef and Lamb New Zealand was certainly one of the more daunting experiences but worthwhile. Travel always makes you think. They have an excellent bottom-up advisory system in New Zealand that is tailored to each region.

"By coincidence, all the herds I visited were purebred but they all had the same breeding philosophies and that seemed to be a form of natural selection.

"It certainly made me think. The cattle producers visited all found a breed suitable to their farm’s environment and resources, and fine-tuned the system of production to meet this. This enabled them to make money in non-subsidised environments, and enabled some of these producers to purchase properties on the back of livestock.

"One family had just returned from viewing a property when I arrived and I was allowed to sit in on the meeting where they made the final decision to purchase; the sale went through the following morning. To see the business dynamics and the confidence in the business around the table that night was something else."

"Animal docility and fertility are two of the principal reasons why large herds are maintained with minimal labour and low time input. The same principle applies on part-time farms. Farmers need to look at their return from labour invested on the farm. It is not always just about growth rates and other output measures; it is also about return for time.

"Every beef cow owner I visited said: ‘An efficient suckler cow is a cow that calves unassisted, weans a calf 40 to 50% of her body weight, and returns in calf with minimal inputs.’

"They all used their available resources to optimum levels and ran businesses that grew and allowed them time to spend with their families and communities or to contribute to developing their respective beef sectors."

Tommy's verdict

“I believe that the way I’m going with the invisible cow is right for me and I will keep going that way. There is a bit of room for us to push numbers and of course we can look to keep improving individual performance too. Facilities are at their limits at the moment so we need to weigh up the variables to see what’s possible in terms of building expansion. Factors such as Brexit and having a third of the landbase rented all play their part in that decision.”

  • This article first appeared in the Irish Beef & Sheep Magazine.