Land is the biggest resource on a farm and making this ground as productive as possible is a key driver to farm profit. With many farms in Northern Ireland heavily dependent on the conacre system, there is little incentive to improve land.

Spending money on fencing or reseeding only to be outbid on land the following year prevents farmers from investing unless they have long-term security. Combined with the rent being paid annually, it poses the question: is it better to invest in improving owned ground and do away with conacre land?

For father-and-son team, Francis and John McHenry, the answer is yes. They have dropped 30 acres of rented land this year, yet have not had to reduce their stock levels. Instead, the money that would normally go to paying the annual conacre bill has been used to install paddocks on their land and for reseeding.

“If we can’t make money from our own ground, we can’t make money from rented land, especially when you consider the price of conacre,” says John.

The McHenrys farm 190 acres stocked with 80 suckler cows and 350 ewes. They are well known for breeding pedigree Charolais cattle under the herd prefix Kilmahamog. Cattle are sold as stores with all lambs marketed through the local lamb group.

Grazing system

The farm was selected as a grass monitor farm for the local discussion group in 2012. The main focus of this project was to look at reseeding and make better use of grass by introducing rotational paddocks.

The group would meet three to four times per year on the farm to review grassland performance and discuss how the members were progressing on their own farms. They were guided by local CAFRE beef and sheep adviser Pat McCambridge and John puts the success of the project down to Pat’s knowledge and guidance.

A 24-acre block was split into seven relatively equal-sized paddocks in year one. Being able to control the grazing area and rest paddocks allowed John to carry twice as many stock on the same land block when compared with a set stocked system.

Cattle remain in each paddock for three days before moving onto the next allocation of grass. In John’s opinion, this has been the key to making the paddock system work.

“Letting grass rest is important to be able to build grass covers in between grazing. Before we installed the paddocks, cattle were grazing freely and there was no way to protect the fresh grass in the re-growth.”

Further divisions

This year, a 30-acre outfarm has been split into paddocks. Unlike the home farm which is situated on drier land, the outfarm is located on peat soils and much more difficult to manage. The land block was previously divided in four divisions, which included two large grazing blocks.

These two grazing blocks were divided into nine grazing paddocks of two to three acres in size this spring. The ground was re-fenced by fixing the existing boundary fencing and installing 2km of new fencing to create internal divisions.

Unlike many paddock systems, John used stockproof fencing, so sheep could be grazed on the land. A couple of extra water troughs were installed.

The total investment this year amounts to £5,000, a figure similar to their previous conacre bill.

A further saving has been made in terms of less fertilizer used. Growing conditions have been favourable in 2014, which has meant that John has only applied 1.5 bags per acre of 25-5-5 in early spring and three quarters of a bag of 24-6-12 since then.

Soil analysis has shown the land to be low in phosphorous, so a bag of 0-46-0 was also applied and there has been a noticeable increase in grass growth since.

The plan is to lime the ground later this summer and dress with a further one to two bags of nitrogen.

“In the past, we were always chasing grass, so were spreading six to seven bags of nitrogen per acre annually. We will be saving at least three bags per acre this year due to the paddock system, which for over 30 acres is a saving of 4.5t of fertilizer. At £250/t of nitrogen, this is a saving of £1,125,” said John.

The outfarm is now carrying 10 in-calf heifers, 20 March-calving cows and calves and 75 ewes with twin lambs. Over 30 acres, this is a stocking rate of 3.7LU/ha, which is remarkable considering the soil type.

Taking 20 weaned calves at an average of 300kg liveweight in October and 150 lambs sold for slaughter at 40kg, the system is producing 1,000kg of liveweight per hectare. Without the paddocks, this would not be possible – the land was previously stocked with 10 cows and calves and 75 ewes.

In wet periods, cattle are kept moving on to prevent sward damage. Cattle and sheep are grazed side by side as this makes management easier, as well as increasing grass utilisation.

“Splitting the ground into paddocks is the best thing we have done on the farm. There is no way we would go back to set stocking cattle again. We couldn’t afford to go back to the old system and try renting ground for little or no return.”

According to CAFRE beef and sheep adviser Pat McCambridge, the biggest success of the monitor farm project is that the other group members have adopted rotational grazing paddocks and have realised similar benefits to the McHenry farm.

He advises: “Start small by focusing on one grazing area in year one to develop the ability to manage grass supplies and grazing days ahead. Don’t make the paddocks too small at the start. Aim for seven to eight grazing paddocks per group. Cattle will quickly get used to moving regularly. Aim to have cattle going in to low covers of ankle high grass.”