No hay or silage needed
He farms 210 hectares at home and 80 hectares of winterage in north Clare. His 100-cow suckling herd is out-wintered in north Clare from December to March, with no supplementary feeding.
Cows calve from April to June. They are Hereford and Angus crosses, and a Hereford bull is used.
All store cattle and weanlings are wintered on slats, fed total mixed ration using a diet feeder. The ration consists of barley straw, fodder beet and a 3:1 mix of brewers grains and citrus pulp. A high mineral mix is also fed to all stock, costing 25c per head per day.
Pat buys brewers grains in June and ensiles it with citrus pulp. The sugar beet is bought in Cork.
It costs €1.74 per day to feed the store cattle and €0.87 per day to feed the weanlings. Claimed advantages include feed consistency and animal performance, silage ground is freed up for summer grazing.
Pat also has 300 breeding ewes mainly Cheviot or Suffolk crosses, with seven Texel rams. He recently hosted a Teagasc farm walk organised by Jim Hayes, Vivian Silke, Michael Neylon, Liam Fitzgerald and Michael O’Driscoll.
