Increasing stock numbers and farm output is never straightforward. Increasing cow numbers or cattle numbers may sound easy in theory, but every farm is different.

Land was not the major limiting factor for Laois farmer Tomás Murphy, but animal housing has been in the past few years.

In 2015, Tomás had a stocking rate of 2.2LU/ha, up from 2.08LU/ha in 2011. When joining the programme, cow numbers were running at about 65, split between autumn- and spring-calvers.

On further investigation of costs, it was shown that the autumn cows were costing about €150/head more than their spring-calving counterparts in feed costs each year. The decision was made to move to a 100% spring-calving herd to reduce costs and streamline labour input.

This year, the herd will calf down 70 between heifers and cows. While increasing cow numbers by five is not huge, the higher stocking rate has come about by finishing more cattle.

Tomás farms 76ha of land, grows 10 acres of grain and has a 100-ewe sheep flock. The area attributed to the beef and suckling enterprise is about 55ha.

Moving to finishing

He always finished some cattle on the farm, but housing was the significant restraint to being able to do so.

Each autumn, the sheds were filled and the cattle for which there was no housing on the farm were sold as stores.

In 2007, he started to build additional slatted accommodation for cattle on the farm. Since then, three slatted sheds have been built, but even at this, Tomás is predicting that 15 cattle will have to be finished or sold prior to housing next year. In addition, old housing on the farm has been changed into calving pens to reduce labour and improve safety.

New slatted shed

The latest slatted shed was completed on the farm last autumn. This shed is a four-bay slatted unit with a 12ft 6in slat. It has a 10ft dry bedded area behind the slats and the back is joined on to an existing four-bay slatted shed. The feed space is open-fronted and covered with an 8ft canopy.

The shed is designed to have two purposes. While it will primarily be used as a finishing shed to hold about 28 to 32 cattle, the shed also contains a 10ft bedded area to the rear of the pens, which can be used as additional calving pens in the spring after cattle are slaughtered if need be.

The original idea was to just have the slatted area, but the tank could not be dug out right next to the existing slatted shed in case the excavation would undermine the existing shed footings or walls. Table 1 details the shed costs. All costs are excluding VAT and it also excludes labour to erect the shed structure itself.

This was done by Tomás with help from his son during the summer months last year. No grant was received for the shed.

Although more housing is still needed on the farm, the new shed is a significant help in increasing winter housing and the stock-carrying capacity of the farm over the winter.

There are currently no plans to build additional housing in the coming years.

Finishing steers, heifers

Increasing output is a major part of the programme, as the additional output dilutes fixed costs and increases the margin in most cases.

Beef output was increased from 615kg/ha in 2011 to 706kg/ha in 2015. This was done by increasing the farm stocking rate and improving animal performance, as each livestock unit is now producing 320kg/ha of beef rather than the 296kg/ha produced in 2011. Tomás predicts that he will carry about 15 cattle more at grass this year than previous years.

There is currently a batch of spring 2014-born bullocks and heifers in for finishing. They are eating 5kg of ration and ad-lib 77 DMD first-cut silage. These cattle were weighed in October and again on 28 December. The bullocks weighed 587kg in October and 630kg in December, having gained about 0.89kg/day since housing. The heifers gained 1.33kg/day in the same period.

Seven cattle have been slaughtered so far and the remainder will be slaughtered out of the shed prior to the spring.

The ration fed to the finishing cattle is 40:60 rolled barley and a barley balancer. The barley balancer is costing about €260/t for a 21% protein mix. The barley is homegrown.

At this mix, the finishing ration is costing about €1.00/head per day, or about €100/head for the final finishing period, where 500kg of ration is consumed.

If the silage quality was not as good, an extra 1kg to 2kg/day would be required, which would increase the cost of the finishing period by about €22 to €45/head.

Own grain costs

Tomás grows about 10 acres of grain per year on the farm, usually spring barley, which is grown in rotation with the field being laid down in grass the following year.

As Tomás does not have any tillage machinery, all tillage work is carried out by a contractor. When we sat down to calculate the cost of the grain produced on the farm, the figures were eye-opening.

Table 2 details the total cost of the grain enterprise on a per-acre basis.

The grain was stored on the farm without rolling, drying or any treatment, as it came off the combine at about 16% moisture. The total cost to grow the grain was €452/acre last year. However, growing conditions resulted in a good yield of about 3t/acre.

At this yield, each tonne grown cost €150/t, including the cost of baling the straw, but not the value of the bales, which would be about €40/acre.

Although the barley is costing him about €140/t to €150/t when rolled, the difference in the cost of growing the grain and what it can be bought at did not really cover the value of the additional 10 acres of grass.

If the yield was brought down to a more typical yield of 2.5t/acre, there would be little to no difference in the cost of growing the grain and what it could be purchased at.

As a result, Tomás is considering dropping the tillage enterprise this year and buying in all concentrates as two separate blends – one for the weanlings and one for the finishing cattle. Another option would be to buy in rolled barley plus the barley balancer and continue the current feeding method.

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