I farm: “100 Holstein Friesian dairy cows in an all-year-round calving system. Average yield is 8,600 litres from 2.5t of concentrates. We graze cows as much as we can in the summer and feed as much good-quality silage as possible in the winter.”
Family: “I farm with my father John and my wife Joanne is also at home with our three children. Amy is six, Eva is four and Lewis is 18 months.”
Open herd: “We buy in all our replacements. All cows are put to an Angus bull and dropped calves are sold. The Angus bull is easy calved and calves have been a good trade. We run a flying herd because we have a limited land area and we think land is too dear to rent for rearing heifers.”
This week: “We finished draining some ground on an out-farm. I will let it grow again and take a second cut of silage off it and then I will plough around 25 acres for reseeding in August. It is part of a farm I bought three years ago around three miles from the home farm.”
Silage: “We got all first-cut silage in dry so it should be in good shape. We cut 35 acres in mid-May and we got another 40 acres in the last week of May. There was some surplus grass from the grazing platform put into the pit too and we will probably bale more next week.”
Grassland club: “I am chairman of the Fermanagh Grassland Club this year. We have meetings with different speakers during the winter and then we have day trip away in April and a farm walk in August. There are over 200 members and the club has been going for over 50 years.”
Milk prices: “Prices have improved a lot over the past year from 18p/litre to a base of 25.5p/l now. Hopefully milk prices will push on up a bit more and then stay around there.”
Quotable quote: “This has probably been one of the best grazing years so far that I can remember, but the change in the weather could upset that. It doesn’t take much to wet Fermanagh.”
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My farming week: Kevin McCaul, Lisarney, Cootehill, Co Cavan
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