As this is my first week writing for “Farmer Writes” I will give a short introduction. I am a part time suckler farmer, farming in Dromard in Co Sligo.

The suckler herd is made up of Limousin cross Simmental cows which are bred to AI Limousin and Belgian Blue bulls. This year I have also used some Saler bulls in order to breed replacement Saler cross heifers to improve the maternal traits in the herd.

The herd is mainly autumn calving with the weanling bulls being sold at 11 – 12 months through local marts. Heifers deemed suitable for breeding at 15 months are kept in the herd as replacements while the remainder are brought to beef at two years old.

Teagasc Open Day

Back in June, I was asked to take part in the farmer forum at the Teagasc Beef Open Day in Grange. This was certainly a great experience and opportunity to meet a lot of people involved in beef production in this country, from farmers and researchers, to farmers’ representatives and factory spokespeople.

My aims on the farm over the last number of years has been to improve the quality of the herd, increase the number of stock in the herd and most importantly for any farmer, improve the profitability of the farm. As any farmer will tell you, this is a lot easier said than done. What we as farmers can do, is try and improve various aspects of our farm each year with the hope and expectation that this will lead to a better standard of living for each of us.

Export market

By calving the cows in the autumn and breeding to the top AI bulls, I am aiming to breed bulls suitable for the export market. Any bulls not shipped should be fit for farmers to finish “in spec” for the home market. The last few weeks on the farm have all been about getting bulls ready for the weanling sales in mid-August. Having weighed the bulls last week and walking through them, I am happy with their performance this year, which I can put down to the good year for grass growth. Let’s hope the buyers think the same on the bulls’ big day out.

Mastitis

With the warm weather of the last few weeks, summer mastitis is always a danger in the autumn calving cows. Cows have been tarred weekly and a pour-on has been used to keep the flies at bay. As cows come closer to their calving date they will be brought nearer to home, where it is easier to keep an eye on them as they start to calve - where the cycle begins again. Hopefully by this time next week 2013 born bulls will have been moved on and we are looking at a new batch of 2014 born calves.