Breeding, reseeding and Michelin star visitors on Kay's organic farm
Conor Sexton (left), Teagasc dry stock advisor for the Mallow region, and Kay O’Sullivan on her organic farm, Glynn Farm, near Mallow. Picture: Chani Anderson
I am no stranger to hosting groups on the farm, but recently I had a first: I welcomed 18 top chefs from France and Belgium.
The chefs are members of the Irish Beef Club, which is a Bord Bia initiative to promote Irish beef internationally. Between them, they hold nine Michelin stars, making them some of the top chefs in the world and experts in preparing premium beef dishes.
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The grass-based system operated on the farm was of particular interest to the group, as all cattle are finished off grass with no meal feeding.
Calving finished here in mid-April, and I am very pleased with the quality of calves this year. Breeding will begin at the end of May. I use 100% AI, and this year I selected sires with strong terminal traits.
Once the sires were selected, I entered the details into the ICBF inbreeding and parental prediction programme to ensure there was no risk of inbreeding. All breeding stock have also been vaccinated with Bultavo 3 against Bluetongue virus.
Faecal samples have been taken from both the cattle and sheep on the farm. I usually take the samples early in the morning while herding stock.
The samples are pooled together by stock category and tested in-house by my veterinary practice, with results available the same day, which is a very efficient system to have in place.
Having grown this crop previously, I was very happy with the results and hope to take two cuts of silage from it this year, as it is a very fast-growing crop.
I also hope to graze it later in the season as it does not pose a bloat risk. It is a very high-protein forage, so it will be interesting to see the silage analysis results later in the year.
The good weather also allowed for the harvesting of both grass and red clover silage. After taking a cut of grass silage, I reseeded another five acres with red clover and hope to harvest a crop from the new reseed around August. All silage ground will receive 2,500 gallons of slurry per acre after cutting.
All actions under the EIP Farming for Water programme are now complete. Due to the poor weather earlier in the spring, I received an extension until April 30 to finish the work.
As part of the scheme, I installed a 70-metre willow bed containing 70 willow plants, along with a sediment trap and water bar. On another section of the farm, an additional water bar and sediment trap were installed to intercept run-off from farm roadways. A sediment trap is a shallow basin designed to slow and capture sediment before water leaves the farm roadway system.
Biodiversity continues to play a major role on the farm. An area dedicated to winter bird feed was recently sown with a three-crop mix of barley, linseed and phacelia, which attracts a wide variety of bird species throughout the winter months.
I also have bee scrapes on the farm and have noticed strong activity from the grey mining bee in recent weeks.
The farm moth survey night took place on Friday, May 8. In one of the traps, I recorded a dark grey form of the muslin moth, which is considered quite rare in Ireland.
This darker colour form is more commonly seen in the UK and mainland Europe, while the white form of the muslin moth is more typical in Ireland.
- Kay O Sullivan is an organic farmer from Mourneabbey and a participant in the Future Beef Programme.
