Father-and-son team John and James Flaherty are farming on 41ha (17ha owned and 24ha leased) of predominantly heavy ground just outside Castleisland in Co Kerry.

The farm also participates in the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge.

Over the last three years, suckler cow numbers on the farm have been rising gradually.

From a base of 35 in 2016, the Flahertys are just coming towards the later stages of the calving season where 49 cows were due to calve. Looking forward, a calf-to-beef enterprise may also be dropped which will enable further expansion to over 60 cows.

It is clear to see that both John and James have a strong acumen for breeding and genetics. The Parthenaise breed is the backbone of the herd, but Charolais, Limousin, Salers and Simmental strains are also present.

According to James, Simmental and, more recently, Salers are becoming more and more prevalent in the herd and this will continue.

In recent years, it became clear to James that AI held the key to unlocking significantly more potential from his suckler herd.

But the process of AI would have to be simple. James is working off-farm a lot of the time, meaning John often does the daily farm work on his own.

After doing some research and studying the layout of the farm, a decision was made to implement an AB system.

AB system

The main principle of the AB system is that the cows pass through the yard each day.

To achieve this, they are grazed on an alternate side of the farmyard every second day.

They graze on the A block on day one, move through the yard to graze the B block on day two and then move back to the A block the following day and so on.

The incentive for the cows to want to move is fresh grass, so grassland management must be good.

“We only allocate one-day paddocks to the group. But this doesn’t mean we have very small paddocks all over the farm.

"We just use a temporary reel and pigtails to split-up a two- or three-day paddock usually,” James explained.

But grazing for one day isn’t necessarily on that small of a piece of ground either.

To further simplify the AI process, all cows and heifers are run in the one group.

On the grassland front, it means easier management and better clean-outs in paddocks, but on the labour front, it means there is only one group to work with.

Infrastructure is important for this system. James admits that they are lucky in the way the farm is laid out: “The farm is positioned in a long, narrow block and we are fortunate that one roadway up the middle of it can basically service all the paddocks and the yard.”

The roadway has been in place for many years but since making the decision to implement the AB system, a few adjustments have been made.

The handling unit was situated less than 100 yards from the roadway, so a short road was created to join the two. This also acts as a holding area.

As cows come down the roadway in pursuit of fresh grass, they are held up in the holding pen until the cows in heat are drafted off. These are then kept in the cattle pen for AI while the rest continue down the roadway to graze.

One thing the AB system won’t do is heat detection, but the Flahertys have a very successful tool for that too – Moocall Heat.

“It’s an excellent piece of equipment and we would find it very hard to achieve the success that we have achieved without it,” James said.

“Myself, my father and the AI man all get text messages when a cow is in heat.”

Instant success

2018 was the first year in which the Flahertys operated 100% AI. Again, James points out that because of his commitments off farm, the plan is to have a very tight calving period each year.

Tight calving patterns are difficult to achieve and require excellent attention to detail. Cows get less chances to go in calf and, if breeding is not closely monitored and managed, there is a risk of high empty rates at scanning.

For the Flahertys, the decision to stick to a tight breeding season paid off. After seven weeks of breeding, an 88% conception rate was achieved with 49 out of 56 cows in calf.

Quality

Calving is progressing well, with over two-thirds calved. What is really noticeable this year as the calves begin to thrive, is the step up in quality from other years.

“I can see a big difference in my calves this year,” James said, “particularly by being able to choose from a wide variety of bulls.

“I was able to pick different bulls for different cows based on breed, calving difficulty and terminal and maternal figures.

Table 1 provides a list of bulls that are used by the Flahertys.