Way out West, the Irish Farmers Journal suckler management series, is back. Kicking us off this week is Martin Corrigan, who farms alongside his father Kevin just outside Belcoo, Co Fermanagh.

Martin and Kevin Corrigan.

The farm extends to 73 acres, with an additional 20 acres rented on a seasonal basis, located about 20km from the home farm.

Martin runs a herd of 27 Simmental-Limousin-cross cows, which sees calving start in early March. This is up from 17 cows in 2017.

Cows and calves on the outfarm 20km from home.

There are two stock bulls on farm - a Charolais to produce weanlings for sale and a Limousin to breed replacement heifers.

The family aims to be selling weanlings at Enniskillen Mart in October at around 300kg to 325kg liveweight. Later-born or lighter weanlings are housed for the winter period and sold the following spring.

Off-farm employment

Both Martin and Kevin have full-time off-farm employment, so the farm has to work around both their busy schedules.

To aid this, they have been working on tightening the calving period over the last few years so that calving takes up less time.

The home farm overlooks Lough McNean to the southwest.

Martin feels they could push to 30 cows in the next year or two. However, this would be their upper limit, as winter accommodation would hinder any further expansion.

The calves these cows are producing are top quality, with style and shape. Read the full story in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.