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The keynote speech at the final day of the Positive Farmers conference came from one of the event organisers, Cork dairy farmer Michael Murphy, who talked about turbocharging farm profits by using grass and clover swards as opposed to grass-only swards.
“The extra benefits of grass and clover in the Clonakilty trial in 2016 amounts to close to €600 extra profit per hectare. The most recent Moorepark trial [from 2014 to 2016] suggests a benefit of €430 per hectare. If it's somewhere in between then it’s a fantastic benefit to farm profits,” he said.
Murphy concluded that these are huge benefits that farmers need to act on.
Calving
Earlier in the day Shinagh farm manager Kevin Ahern and John McNamara from Teagasc explained how they moved from 58% to 96% calving in six weeks.
A combination of cows bred for high fertility, very tight management around breeding and ensuring replacement heifers calve compactly at the start of the calving season are key issues that helped improve calving rate.
Greenfield Kilkenny farm manager Tom Lyng and Abigail Ryan from Teagasc outlined how the Greenfield manage staff rosters, staff training and personal health during a busy calving season, among other issues.
People management
Describing the dynamics of people management and outlining their partnership Captal Farms were Waterford dairy farmers John Condon and Pat Ryan.
Some of the lessons they have learned since forming the partnership over 11 years ago have been the fact that each partner has different personality traits and how it is important to have a good mix for a successful partnership operation.
Other speakers included Robert Troy, Newtownshandrum; Laurence Shalloo, Moorepark; Will Grayling, New Zealand; and Kay Carslaw from Sussex.
Over 500 farmers attended the second day of the Positive Farmers conference on Thursday. Key messages from the event will feature in reports on the Irish Farmers Journal and on www.farmersjournal.ie.
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