Sheep grassland farmer of the year winner Tomas O’Leary runs a mid-season flock of 230 mature Belclare and Suffolk ewes on his farm near Beaufort, Co Kerry.
Some of sheep grassland farmer of the year, Tomas O'Leary's flock of Belclare and Suffolk ewes.
He also runs an 80-ewe lambs and this year he is on target to rear two lambs/ewe.
Lambing starts on 1 March, with the ewe lambs lambing two weeks later.
Tomas farms in two locations, 16 miles apart. To manage this, he takes silage from the smaller home farm of 45 acres at Headford and the main grazing platform consists of 75 acres at Beaufort.
This week, well in excess of 100 farmers attended the open day on his farm.
Challenging year
In 2017, Tomas grew 13.5t/ha.
After a challenging spring and six weeks with no grass growth at the height of last summer’s drought, he grew 4t/ha less in 2018.
Sheep grassland farmer of the year winner Tomas O'Leary talks through his grass measuring techniques at a farm walk on his farm.
The benefit of getting the basics right were plain to see.
With the farm stocked heavily at 12 ewes/ha, Tomas has an efficient system setup.
Brilliant at the basics
There is excellent infrastructure in place from a central roadway to 18 paddocks fenced with sheep wire.
Almost all of these paddocks have water points at each end, offering opportunities to subdivide with temporary fences when required.
A focus has been placed on getting soil fertility right and regular soil sampling and lime applications when required have enabled Tomas to get high grass yields.
Contract rearing
A beef and sheep farmer, Tomas has run different cattle systems on the farm over the last number of years and since last autumn, the cattle enterprise consists of contract-rearing dairy heifers.
Tomas O'Leary has been contract rearing dairy heifers on his farm at Beaufort near Killarney in Co Kerry.
Normally, Tomas practices mixed grazing of sheep and cattle, but due to the breeding season for the heifers, he ran them as a separate group to simplify the workload.
Read more
Well-designed sheep scheme working well
Finding a happy balance with grassland management
Sheep grassland farmer of the year winner Tomas O’Leary runs a mid-season flock of 230 mature Belclare and Suffolk ewes on his farm near Beaufort, Co Kerry.
Some of sheep grassland farmer of the year, Tomas O'Leary's flock of Belclare and Suffolk ewes.
He also runs an 80-ewe lambs and this year he is on target to rear two lambs/ewe.
Lambing starts on 1 March, with the ewe lambs lambing two weeks later.
Tomas farms in two locations, 16 miles apart. To manage this, he takes silage from the smaller home farm of 45 acres at Headford and the main grazing platform consists of 75 acres at Beaufort.
This week, well in excess of 100 farmers attended the open day on his farm.
Challenging year
In 2017, Tomas grew 13.5t/ha.
After a challenging spring and six weeks with no grass growth at the height of last summer’s drought, he grew 4t/ha less in 2018.
Sheep grassland farmer of the year winner Tomas O'Leary talks through his grass measuring techniques at a farm walk on his farm.
The benefit of getting the basics right were plain to see.
With the farm stocked heavily at 12 ewes/ha, Tomas has an efficient system setup.
Brilliant at the basics
There is excellent infrastructure in place from a central roadway to 18 paddocks fenced with sheep wire.
Almost all of these paddocks have water points at each end, offering opportunities to subdivide with temporary fences when required.
A focus has been placed on getting soil fertility right and regular soil sampling and lime applications when required have enabled Tomas to get high grass yields.
Contract rearing
A beef and sheep farmer, Tomas has run different cattle systems on the farm over the last number of years and since last autumn, the cattle enterprise consists of contract-rearing dairy heifers.
Tomas O'Leary has been contract rearing dairy heifers on his farm at Beaufort near Killarney in Co Kerry.
Normally, Tomas practices mixed grazing of sheep and cattle, but due to the breeding season for the heifers, he ran them as a separate group to simplify the workload.
Read more
Well-designed sheep scheme working well
Finding a happy balance with grassland management
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