I farm: “About 72ac of a beef enterprise in Co Limerick by myself.”
Ownership: “My mother and myself own the farm after my father passed away about 15 years ago. He had retired in 1998; I was quite young and in college, so we rented out the farm for about 10 years and then I took it over in 2009.”
Cows: “I would typically have 60 head of cattle. Most of the time I just buy Friesian bullocks, I raise and fatten them. One reason for this is because I’m in a strong dairy area so you can get the Friesian bull yearlings easy enough. I also buy the beef breeds, mainly white heads and Aberdeen Angus if I can get them at a good price. I try to buy the yearlings at the most competitive price I can get them, Charolais and Limousins tend to be very expensive and I find that you’re quite exposed.”
Beef price: “They’re strong but the costs are high as well. I sent 13 animals to the factory a month ago and I got €5.20/kg, which is the base price and I did quite well, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Part-time: “If there’s one thing about what I do, it’s very much that I am part-time. I’ve a fairly demanding job so I have to keep things as simple are possible. I try to keep the labour input down to less than an hour a day really and I try to catch up at the weekends. That’s why I do beef, it’s less intensive.”
This week: “I need to get the second cut done; the weather is catching me out. I’ll get contractors to do that. I was a little late topping the fields, but I want to get all the fertiliser out before the end of August. I got the soil sample back in May, I’ve a bit of a deficiency in Ps and Ks so I need to try and select the fertiliser based on that.”
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