Building farm cover to extend the grazing season

Donnchadh and Eamon McCarthy on their farm at Carrigeen, Youghal, Co. Waterford. Photograph: Patrick Browne

We are running a suckling to beef enterprise split into spring (60%) and autumn (40%) calving consisting of 55 suckler cows. The males are finished as under-16-month bull beef, while the heifers, not retained for breeding, are finished at 18-20 months. Own heifers are kept for breeding.

Grassland management

Grass growth rates seemed to have recovered at the end of July following rainfall, however, our region has received very little rainfall since the start of August and, as a result, grass growth rates have been dropping from 76kg dm/ha/day at the end of July to 23kg dm/ha/day on the last measure on August 19.

The demand is 42kg dm/ha and pre grazing yields are still between 1,300 and 1,400kg dm per ha with a farm cover of 713kg dm/ha.

At this stage of the year we would like to be building farm cover in order to extend the grazing season.

Some of the measures we have introduced in order to slow down the rotation include housing young stock for finishing, creep grazing the calves, and removing all maiden heifers to the outfarm in order to reduce demand.

The reseeded ground in the spring has come into the rotation. There is still some ground closed for a third cut and also 5.91ha of stubble ground has been returned to grass in order to break the crop rotation.

We have not introduced silage yet to the cows as silage stocks are just adequate for the winter ahead. The utilisation of the grass continues to be excellent with the high dry matter. All the remaining fertiliser allowance has been spread by mid August in order to maximise our response to nitrogen.

Autumn calving / breeding update

The autumn herd commenced calving on July 20. All bar two cows have calved, with the last cow due on August 31. The calving has gone well to date without any issues.

The AI bulls used on the autumn herd include AU4683, LM6172, CH4321, SI4350 and CH7503. Both SI4350 and LM6172 were both used for breeding female replacements.

Our spring weanlings have received their primary and booster injection vaccine for viral pneumonia and we will give them their booster injection four weeks later in September.

Cattle performance

The 2024-born bull calves have been housed and will gradually be stepped up onto their ad-lib diet, which is half made up of rolled barley, with the other half being 14% protein, high-energy beef ration.

The bulls receive ad lib silage with the ration as opposed to straw. When on ad lib the bulls consume up to 14kg per head per day. The bulls are weighed regularly during the finishing period and weight gains are monitored at each weighing. All the spring born bulls are now sold and we were very pleased with how they performed.

Farm building

We are completing a new roofed easi-feed unit on the farm this year.We applied to and were successful with our TAMS application under the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme.

We have commenced the building works and will have the building ready for this winter as the tank is already in place. This building will give us more flexibility, and reduce labour on the farm over the winter.

We have also reroofed the grain store as the roof was originally completed in the 70s and was in need of repairs.

Eamon and his son Donnchadh are farming in Carrigeen, Glendine, Youghal, Co Waterford and are part of the Teagasc
Future Beef programme with the Signpost programme