Increasing paddock numbers from 35 to 66 sounds like a lot of work but John Watchorn puts this down as one of the key components in improving his grassland management and helping him to claim the Grass10 beef farmer of the year title in 2018.

“It’s very simple. The more grass I grow, the more money I will make. Nobody else can do anything about this except me so it’s up to me to get it right,” John said.

The system is working with the farm consistently delivering gross margins in excess of €1,000 every year.

Grazing infrastructure

John invested in a good boundary electric fence and a permanent fence down the middle of most fields.

Temporary fences are then pulled off this central line to make paddocks wherever he needs them. “Where you put your drinkers is critical to maximising your options for grazing. I zigzag the troughs across the field so that they can serve more paddocks. There is also a central roadway through the farm, which is invaluable when moving stock around the farm. Temporary roadways are also constructed with posts and wire in a drystock situation to make some of the extremities of the farm more accessible.”

Soil fertility

John was shocked at the low level of fertility of the farm when soil samples were taken in 2015. No field on the 44.7ha farm had the optimum soil fertility. Forty-seven per cent of the farm had a pH of over 5.9. After spreading 2t lime/acre over a period of four years, this has increased to 85%. Phosphorus has seen a slower improvement. All of the farm was Index 1 and 2 in 2015, but this dropped to 79% in 2019.

John has moved away from rearing dairy calves to purchasing them at the weanling stage

John said: “We have concentrated on applying compounds with higher P levels. We now alternate between CAN/urea and 18:6:12. I spread nitrogen in January-February, 1.5 bags/acre of 18:6:12 in March, CAN in April and 18:6:12 in May/June.”

Index 1 soils got another bag/acre of 18:6:12 in September. Sixty-two per cent of the farm was Index 3 or 4 in 2015 and this improved to 87% in this category in 2019. Silage fertiliser is 3,000 gallons of slurry, 1.5 bags of 18:6:12 and two bags of sulpha CAN/acre. The remaining slurry goes to grazing paddocks with low indexes.

Grassland management

John has a simple approach when it comes to grassland management on his farm. He splits the year into three blocks. From mid-January to April, the target is to graze off the farm. From April to October, it is rotational grazing and keeping things simple and then from October to mid-November, it is about closing up paddocks in rotation in advance of the following spring. The farm grew 14t/DM/ha in 2017 – 8t to 9t more than the average drystock farm utilises each year. The target is to improve on 14t/ha if he can.

Spring

The spring rotation planner drives decision-making in January, February and March. Stock are turned out as required to make sure all the farm including the silage fields are grazed off by 4 April. “The key is to be flexible during this time. Stand off if you have to. Graze wet ground during the dry weeks, etc,” John said.

If he is behind, he goes to light covers to speed the rotation. This year, 66 weanlings were turned out on 15 January and remained outdoors all spring.

Martina Harrington, Teagasc adviser, said: “If we put a saving of €2/day by grazing these animals outdoors, that’s over €8,000 saved from early turnout.”

These weanlings were weighed on 7 March and they gained 0.98/kg/day during this time.

Summer

“I walk the farm every Sunday and use PastureBase to look at growth, demand and days ahead and use the report to spread fertiliser and take out paddocks,” John said.

The farm is split into 1.5-day paddocks and this is key to helping the decision-making process. Animals graze these out and move on to fresh grass all the time. If this was being grazed as one division, John couldn’t afford to take out large areas. Taking out small paddocks is much easier. “I try to graze paddocks as many times as possible and I think this is key to growing high amounts of grass DM/ha.”

Autumn

John starts to close paddocks on 1 October in rotation until 15 November. They are closed in the same rotation that he would like to graze them in spring. Once paddocks are closed, there is no going back and grazing in late November or December.

Reseeding

John aims to reseed 10% to 15% of the farm annually and has reseeded 70% of the farm in the last 10 years. No ploughing is carried out, as stones are an issue on the farm and John doesn’t believe in ploughing down the nutrients in the top 10cm of soil.

John’s reseeding routine

  • Spray off old sward with glyphosate.
  • Graze off the dead material seven to 10 days after spraying.
  • Power-harrow twice.
  • Apply lime.
  • Sow grass seed at 14kg/acre.
  • Spread three bags/acre of 10:10:20 fertiliser.
  • Roll well after sowing.
  • Apply one bag nitrogen/acre four to five weeks later.
  • Graze as often as he can.
  • Avoid silage cut in year one.
  • Grass10 campaign

    The Grass10 campaign is a four-year programme launched by Teagasc with the support of the Department of Agriculture and Food, AIB, Grassland Agro, FBD and the Irish Farmers Journal. The campaign includes an annual competition where winners are chosen in categories such as beef, sheep, dairy, etc. The objective of the campaign is to achieve 10 grazings/paddock/year utilising 10t grass DM/ha. In order to achieve this objective nationally on farm, changes that need to occur will include:

  • Improved grassland management skills.
  • Improved soil fertility.
  • Improved grazing infrastructure.
  • Improved sward composition.
  • Increased grass measurement and use of PastureBase Ireland.
  • Name: John and Shirley Watchorn.
  • Address: Newbawn, New Ross, Co Wexford.
  • Farm size: 44.7ha.
  • System: Trading system buying weanlings and finishing at two years.
  • Breeds: mostly Friesian, Aberdeen Angus and Hereford from the dairy herd with some continentals depending on purchase price.
  • Number: 150 finished annually.
  • Stocking rate: 3.22 LU/ha.
  • Beef output per livestock unit: 444kg
  • Beef output/ha: 1,429kg.
  • Teagasc adviser: Martina Harrington.