It is less than seven days until our national beef and sheep open day takes place on Tullamore Farm.

Gates open at 10.30am on Tuesday 26 July with farm tours taking place roughly every 20 minutes during the day.

It’s a big day for drystock farmers with a lot of information available on the day for both suckler and sheep farmers.

It has been three long years since we opened the gates of Tullamore Farm to visitors and all of the Irish Farmers Journal team are really looking forward to welcoming farmers back onto the farm.

We are also delighted to be partnering with AXA Smart farm insurance for this year’s event on Tuesday 26 July.

A lot has taken place on the farm over the last numbers of years. COVID may have upset a lot of our plans but like all other farms the cows kept calving and the sheep kept lambing and the farming cycle continued.

On the day we will have the full financial performance of the farm for 2021 including how higher input costs will impact the farm in 2022. We’ll go through our breeding performance including weaning weights, young bull performance and our in calf heifer sales.

Grass is a central pillar to the production system and we will outline the challenges and tips on managing grass in a drystock system.

A huge emphasis has also been placed on soil fertility and making sure that all fertiliser that is spread on the farm is working to maximum efficiency.

Siobhan Walsh is also completing some interesting work on soil carbon storage on the farm and she will have the latest results on the day.

The farm has set itself a number of targets over the next five years including reducing fertiliser N application by 15% and increasing biodiversity on the farm. We’ll demonstrate on the day how we plan to do this.

Our forum which will be opened by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will involve a discussion and debate around what the future looks like for Irish beef production and what direction farms like Tullamore Farm will need to go in to ensure a profitable sustainable business in the years ahead. Admission and parking is free.

The open day will be signposted from all major roads around Tullamore and the farm is located at R35AT81. There is something there for everybody including some family friendly attractions for kids. We look forward to meeting and talking to as many people as possible on the day.