Beef finishers profit from enhanced grass quality and feed efficiency
Adam Woods, Better Beef programme manager, said: “While confidence is low in the beef finishing sector at the moment, beef finishers must not take their eye off increasing efficiency within the farm gate to improve profitability. Billy [Glasheen] has demonstrated how a store-to-beef finishing system can deliver a healthy margin where costs are kept to a minimum by concentrating on grazed grass to maximise output.”
The open day on the farm of Mr Glasheen, a beef finisher outside Mullinahone, Co Tipperary, is one in a series of 10 open days taking place on farms participating in the Teagasc/ Irish Farmers Journal Better Farm Beef Programme.
Mr Glasheen joined the programme in 2012 and since then has made some key changes which has resulted in his gross margin increasing from €205 per hectare in 2011, to €707 per hectare in 2013.
This has been achieved by increasing the stocking rate on the farm and increasing the numbers of animals slaughtered. He has also moved from an ad-lib meal feeding system to a grass based system where a high proportion of the live weight gain is achieved from grazed grass. He grew 11.4 tonnes per hectare of grass in 2013 and the plan is to grow 15 tonnes per hectare in 2015 to sustain the proposed stocking rate.
Alan Dillon, Better farm adviser and Joe Hand, Teagasc adviser, explained to farmers at the open day how Mr Glasheen plans to increase the quantities of grass grown and utilised on the farm through increasing soil fertility, grass budgeting and reseeding old pastures.
A further three open days will take place focusing on farming systems, soil fertility, grass budgeting and making quality silage.
