Proactive approach for BETTER farm autumn walks

With 2018 challenging beef farmers in almost every way possible, this year’s Teagasc/ Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm Beef Challenge autumn walks have lots on the menu to both inform and advise farmers before they tackle the coming winter.

While the temptation at many farm walks may be to ignore the lingering problems and challenges in favour of viewing livestock and attractive farm features, this series of autumn walks has laid out an agenda to tackle the many concerns held by beef farmers throughout the country, all while displaying a variety of livestock and infrastructure along the way. If you were to ask a group of farmers what their primary concerns are facing into this winter, fodder, finance and animal health would probably feature highly in the list of responses. With this in mind, the BETTER farm management team, along with the host farmers, have put together what is sure to be a series of informative, helpful and enjoyable farm walks, to address each of the problems mentioned – as well as treating visitors to a selection of quality stock. Running from the 4 September to the 13 September, the walks will represent large areas of the country, beginning in Cork and ending in Louth, stopping in Clare and Carlow along the way. The walks are KT approved and Department officials will be present on the day for sign in.

Fodder

“How are you for fodder this winter?” is the question that every farmer is asking. With storms and snowfall demolishing fodder reserves in the spring, farmers had planned to conserve as much feed as possible this summer. The recent drought had other ideas, however, and in nearly all parts of the country, silage crops were affected. For this reason, many farms are now facing into the winter with a fodder deficit. The most important thing though, is not to panic.

First and foremost, it is important to identify the situation you are in, regardless of how good or bad that situation may be. To do that, it is necessary to complete a fodder budget.

Over the past two weeks, the Irish Farmers Journal has featured fodder budgets from 11 of the BETTER farm participants. Use these templates to complete your own and read about what measures they put in place to give themselves a fighting chance.At the upcoming BETTER farm autumn walks, advice will be given as to how you can get through the coming winter – regardless of how much feed is in the yard. Hearing from the host farmers will also be interesting to see what solutions they have put in place to bridge the deficit.

Finance

As a result of the challenging conditions during 2018, farmers have had to dig deep to keep their farm running, that includes into their own pockets. As a result, cash supplies in the business have generally been depleted, mainly from increased fodder purchases, meal purchases and in some cases, higher veterinary expenses. Dry stock farmers are particularly exposed to shocks to their cash flow due to the typical infrequent nature of livestock sales. Where bills have risen significantly and where cash-inflows have taken a hit, farm businesses may be facing issues such as covering loan repayments, household bills or overdue farm bills.

At the BETTER farm autumn walks, there will be bank officials present at each event to go through the problems facing farmers and to offer solutions where possible. Despite fodder stocks being low and cash reserves getting tight, it is critical to find a way to buy the feed and pay for the medicine bills to prevent 2018’s problems becoming 2019’s issues too.

For that reason, it is important to sort your finances now so you can start fresh next year, and these events can be the perfect place to learn how to do just that.

Herd health

While it may not spring to mind immediately, herd health has the potential to play a significant role in the successes or failures of the coming winter. Just like humans, animals have been put under significant stress during 2018, with some suffering from extreme weather and feed shortages. At the end of the day your herd’s health is your wealth and for that reason, Teagasc advisors, members of the Irish Farmers Journal livestock team and local vets will be present at each event to outline what to look for when it comes to minding your stock this winter.

John McSweeney farms near Lissarda, in west Cork, alongside his wife Trish and children Eileen and Sean. He also works off-farm four days a week. On Tuesday 4 September, the first BETTER farm autumn walk will take place on his farm, which consists of 27ha of mainly free-draining ground situated in one block. John has always run a herd of approximately 20 suckler cows. To supplement his income and to reduce the numbers calving he also used to purchase near 100 calves from dairy farmers to rear in the spring time. A large proportion of these dairy calves were sold live as weanlings in the autumn but his own progeny, along with a small number of the purchased stock, were finished as under 16-month bulls and 20-month heifers on farm. Since joining the BETTER farm beef challenge, the plan has now been tweaked slightly to carry a herd of 30 suckler cows and to purchase 40 dairy-cross calves each year – this time, taking all stock through to finish. The theory behind this plan is to increase stocking rate and increase output, with the target gross margin for the farm being set at €1,503/ha. John has been an extremely high performer in the past, growing just under 14t DM/ha in 2017 and running at a stocking rate of near 3LU/ha on a consistent basis.

As on many farms, this year has been an extremely challenging one for John. The decision to buy extra dairy calves that was previously laid out in his plan didn’t work out as severe drought hit. Plans to purchase-in silage also failed as extreme pressure came on fodder supplies, particularly in the area of Cork. However, John took steps to alleviate the problems, and along with his local Teagasc advisor Anthony Dineen and BETTER farm advisor Alan Dillon, he is working towards making it through this winter and re-building once again in 2019.

On the walk, as well as hearing about how John set about addressing these challenges, a batch of bought-in dairy calves will be on display, as well as his suckler cows and calves and a field of Redstart that was sown in the last week of July.

On Thursday 6 September, suckler-to-steer beef and dairy calf-to-beef farmer, Tom Bolger in Borris, Co Carlow, will host the second BETTER farm autumn walk. Tom is married to Mary and they have two children, Ian, who helps greatly with the day-to-day running of the farm, and Ellen. The farm compromises of 58ha in total, 5.5ha of which is tillage and the remaining 52.5ha is in free-draining, permanent grassland.Tom is currently running 47 spring calving suckler cows with all progeny now been taken to beef. Previously stock were sold as stores at 18 months of age but since joining the programme all stock are being taken to finish. Males are now slaughtered as steers at 20 to 24 months of age and heifers at similar ages. Forty-seven cows calved down this spring with the plan to keep cow numbers at this level going forward. While it was suggested at the farm planning meeting, with the BETTER farm management team and local Teagasc advisor Hugh Mahon, that finishing all stock might be a beneficial change, Tom also outlined his desire to phase out the sheep flock. According to Tom, he wanted to concentrate more on the cattle enterprise, as well as the fact that his son Ian is working full-time off farm, so calving cows and lambing ewes wasn’t practical.

To compensate for the loss of the sheep flock, a dairy calf-to-beef system was introduced in its place. This year 55 dairy calves were reared on the farm with the plan to rear similar numbers going forward with the aim of taking them all to beef. Again, purchasing in dairy calves and finishing all stock will increase stocking rate and output and the plan on this farm is to achieve a gross margin of €1,100/ha.

During the drought, the farm suffered severely due to the free draining nature of the land. Action was taken to make up for fodder shortfalls and 100t of maize silage was purchased. On the day of the walk, Tom’s suckler cows and calves, his steers and heifers and his 2018 dairy calves will be on display.

On Tuesday 11 September, the Clare representative of the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm Challenge, Sean Hayes will host the third autumn walk. Sean operates a part-time suckler-to-beef system alongside his wife Marica. His farm is on a 63ha fragmented holding of variable type land, 47ha of which is owned. Most of the soil is heavy in nature. The suckler herd is split calving with 25 autumn calvers and 42 spring calvers for 2018.

Since joining the programme, Sean has been expanding his herd. His ultimate goal is to get to 75 cows; calving 30 in the autumn and 45 in the spring. His preferred cow type is a milky continental cow, ideally a Limousin X coming from the dairy herd. One of the other key changes made with programme advisor John Greaney and local Teagasc advisor Connor O’Reilly was a move towards finishing all stock. He is now finishing all males under 16-months of age and heifers at 21 to 22 months, instead of the previous weanling/store selling system. The reason for moving towards this type of selling system was to maximise the return for the huge emphasis placed on breeding on the farm. Sean has been a frequent user of AI and given the high genetic merits of the progeny on the farm, finishing these cattle on-farm was an obvious change to make. The decision has been an extremely successful one as he has achieved exceptional carcase weights and grades since. When the BETTER farm challenge kicked-off in January 2017, Sean’s gross margin for the previous year stood at €388/ha, below the group average of €598/ha. Going forward Sean has high hopes to increase the output on the holding to over 1,000kg/ha and a gross margin of €1,120/ha.

This year, Sean decided on expanding his farm and is currently well on his way to erecting a five-bay, single-slat shed with a layback, which will give him scope to carry more cows and still bring all progeny to slaughter. This shed, along with his spring calving and autumn calving cows and his finishing bulls, will be on display on the day.

Co Louth farmer Martin O’Hare will host the final BETTER farm autumn walk at his farm on Thursday 13 September. Martin operates a suckler to under 16-month bull and 20-month heifer beef system with his mother Sheila and support of wife Eilish and son Felim.

The farm consists of 60ha in total, 10ha of which is in tillage and the remaining 50ha in grassland. Infrastructure has always been a work in progress on the farm with well laid out paddocks and excellent roadways, however, since the start of the programme extra paddocks have been installed. Martin is running 93 split-calving suckler cows. Seventy cows calved this spring and a further 23 are calving this autumn. Since joining the BETTER farm beef challenge, the decision was made with programme advisor Tommy Cox and local Teagasc advisor Hugh Rooney, to put some of the tillage ground back into grassland to facilitate carrying extra stock. Going forward, as part of the plan, Martin hopes to increase cow numbers to above the 100 mark, continuing to calve over 70 cows in the spring and increasing the autumn herd to over 30 cows.

Martin felt that 100 cows is a comfortable number for him to handle so he was also open to the idea of a store finishing operation to complement his own stock. The plan is to buy 25 to 30 store bulls at 400kg and finish them along with his own progeny. By increasing cow numbers and purchasing in additional stock, it is hoped output can be pushed to almost 1,400kg/ha and gross margin can be driven to €1,440/ha.

Like many farmers with free-draining soil, drought badly affected growth on the farm. Silage was being fed from late-May onwards. As a result fodder supplies took a hit. However, over the last number of weeks plans have been put in place to relieve the situation.

Martin will keep a high proportion of straw and grain from his tillage crop, and he has also purchased a standing meadow for extra silage.

On the day of the walk, attendees will hear how Martin has been implementing preventative action, as well as getting the chance to see his autumn and spring calving herds.