Martin O’Hare is Louth’s BETTER farm representative. He farms 60ha just west of Dundalk, with suckler, beef and tillage enterprises currently operating.

The suckler and beef portion of the business comprises 42ha at present – there are 71 cows due to calve this spring and a further 23 due for autumn 2018.

A further 9ha will come into grass from tillage in 2018, halving Martin’s tillage ground to 9ha of spring barley.

Calving kicked off in the first days of January and is progressing well.

“The maternity ward is starting to fill up here at the moment and the bull is in around three weeks with the autumn cows and thankfully doesn’t look too busy. I had served 21 to AI before he went in,” Martin told me.

Autumn calves currently have the facility to creep away from their dams into a straw-bedded calf shed. Martin has been shutting the calves in here since before breeding to help break the cow-calf bond and encourage the onset of reproductive cyclicity.

Coughing

“They’ve a deep straw bed and I can supplement them with meals in there. They’re eating just under 1kg of meal daily. It’s funny, when I open the door to let them back out to the cows, there isn’t a big rush at all. They’re comfortable where they are. I am conscious that there’s a small bit of coughing in the group – where they’re creeping to isn’t the best ventilated house in the world – but they are vaccinated (IBR intranasal and Bovipast).

To save money and try to lift fat scores, Martin is opting to mix his own ration for his current crop of finishing bulls.

“I have my own barley, then I’m buying in rolled maize, soya bean meal, soya hulls and molasses.”

Martin’s bull finishing ration will be as follows:

  • 37% rolled barley.
  • 32% rolled maize.
  • 15% soya hulls.
  • 7.5% soya bean meal.
  • 5% molasses.
  • 3.5% minerals/rumen buffer.

    • In 2017, Martin slaughtered 39 beef bulls at an average carcase weight of 392kg. Over 90% graded U, or better, and the lowest grade was R+. Average carcase price for his bulls was €1,689 at 16 months of age.

    Martin is this week’s featured BETTER farmer in the Irish Farmers Journal. Read about his outwintered heifers and breeding policies this Thursday.