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Maurice Hearne is flying the flag for Waterford in the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm beef challenge which commenced in 2017.
Maurice operates a mixed suckler, sheep and tillage enterprise in the townland of Leperstown which is located outside Dunmore East, Co Waterford. Maurice is married to Mairead and they have a son, Patrick.
The farm compromises of 121.5ha in total, 39.9ha of which is tillage and the remaining 81.6ha in grassland. The majority of the land can be described as light, sandy-type soil.
The grassland area is quite fragmented being split into three blocks; the main block of over 36.4ha is situated around the yard, with the remaining 45.2ha split in two separate blocks with the furthest approximately 8km away.
Infrastructure is quite good on the farm, with well laid-out paddocks. Since the start of the programme extra paddocks have been installed, as well as upgrades to roadways, to provide ease of access and management.
Maurice is currently running a 110-cow autumn-calving herd and a 110-ewe mid-season lambing flock. After a difficult few years for tillage, the decision was made at the farm planning meeting to put some of the tillage ground back into grassland to facilitate carrying extra stock.
The plan is to maintain cow numbers at the 110 mark and continue slaughtering males as under-16-month bulls and heifers at 24 months. To complement his own stock, the plan is to buy 30 to 40 store bulls at 350kg to 400kg and finish them along with his own progeny.
Along with the bull-finishing enterprise, a small-scale dairy-calf-to-beef operation was introduced to the farm last year, with 30 spring-born calves purchased. The plan is to take them to beef as bulls under 20 months.
The farm has made steady progress since the start of the programme and it will really kick on in the next year as the farm plan takes shape.
Since joining the BETTER Farm beef challenge programme, Maurice has continued to improve his grassland management.
Infrastructure improvements
Extra grazing divisions and water troughs have been installed on the farm to ensure stock residency in paddocks is no longer than three days and recovery is 21 days before grazing again.
Along with extra paddocks, Maurice walks the farm weekly to measure grass growth and assess farm covers. Measuring highlights if there is a surplus or deficit of grass on the farm, but also ensures that grass is high quality.
Target pre-grazing yields are 1,300kg to 1,600kg DM/ha (8cm to 10cm) for all stock to maximise intake and weight gain. Measuring also allows Maurice to identify lower-growing paddocks for reseeding.
Along with increasing paddock infrastructure, extra roadways have been installed on the farm to allow ease of access, especially during the shoulders of the year.
Reseeding after Redstart
Like the majority of farmers on lighter soil, the extended dry spell last summer resulted in a significant reduction in grass growth.
The reduction in grass growth, coupled with the difficult spring, resulted in a huge challenge trying to build depleted fodder reserves and maintaining grass in front of stock.
Last July, when a fodder budget was completed for the farm, a significant fodder deficit was identified. To try to counteract this, the decision was made to plant 20ha of redstart on tillage ground and a proportion of grassland once harvesting was complete.
The crop was sown the end of August and yielded approximately 4.2t/ha of dry matter. The crop is now totally grazed and the focus is getting the ground back in production as soon as possible.
The grassland area will be reseeded in the spring as soon as conditions allow and spring crops will also be sown on the tillage ground.
Getting the mix right
Mixed grazing is a new concept being looked at as part of the BETTER Farm beef challenge.
As part of the programme, the management team is looking to develop a suitable blueprint to facilitate mixed grazing of sheep and cattle.
Along with 110 autumn-calving suckler cows and followers on the farm, there is a flock of 110 ewes on the farm, which lambs in late February.
Demand for grass in early spring for both cattle and sheep is high. Planning for spring grazing starts the previous autumn to ensure there is an adequate supply.
Paddocks are closed from early October to allow covers to build over the winter. Maurice aims to have at least 50% to 60% of the farm closed by the end of October and that is not grazed again until the spring.
Fertiliser is spread in late August to build up grass covers and then again in early spring as soon as conditions allow to kickstart growth.
Sheep are grazed on the silage out-block before being housed at the end of November. Sheep are usually grazed with yearling bulls at turnout.
Temporary divisions are proving difficult to implement on the farm, so to successfully enable the operation of a paddock system to graze the sheep and cattle together, Maurice has incorporated a lot of extra permanent sheep fencing.
In recent years, Maurice experienced some severe pneumonia outbreaks in calves and yearlings. In 2017, a thorough herd health plan was put in place for the farm as part of the herd health challenge. The herd health challenge is geared towards improving animal husbandry and animals’ environment, as well as implementing a vaccination programme.
As part of this, modifications to existing buildings were carried out to improve ventilation. Ventilated sheeting was replaced with Yorkshire boarding and extra air outlets were put in the roof to improve air circulation.
Then, as well as the building changes, a strict vaccination policy was introduced for the herd which included IBR and pneumonia. Across the whole programme, as stock numbers increase, more and more farmers are opting for a strong vaccination programme to try to prevent herd health outbreaks, rather than looking to cure problems afterwards.
Furthermore, parasitic burdens are regularly monitored with pooled faecal samples testing for infestations at regular intervals throughout the year.
The walk takes place in Leperstown, Dunmore East, Co Waterford, X91 R279 on Thursday 4 April from 2pm to 4pm.
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