Philip farms alongside his father Joe on 16ha of land in Aughamore, Co Leitrim. He uses 100% AI on the farm and plans to sell the surplus heifers as five-star replacement breeding heifers. He also finishes all his bulls at 16 months, as he believes that his maternal-bred bulls will not meet the required price tag as weanlings, so he carries them through until slaughter.
Philip and Joe have a keen interest in breeding quality pedigree stock. They also keep pedigree Simmentals and Angus cows with their commercial animals on the farm, with the intention of selling offspring on as breeding animals.
Breeding
The breeding season is coming to an end; there is only one cow left for AI. Philip uses a synchronisation programme with all breeding animals on the farm, as he is still in the process of converting from an autumn-calving to a spring-calving herd. AI bulls being used on the farm include Potterleagh Mark (CH4160), Islavale Cracker (ISL), Curaheen Gunshot (SI4147), Elderberry Galahad (EBY) and Ewdenvale Ivor (LM2014).
Bulls
The first of the 2017-born bulls from the farm were slaughtered six weeks ago. Most of these were aged between 13 and 15 months. Philip told me how his first year of finishing went: “I was happy with how it went. The bulls done well for me, but I still feel I can do better next year. The calves are in a tighter bunch this year and it will be easier to group them for finishing. A lot of the reason I killed some of the bulls so young last year was because I didn’t want to be hanging on to small groups. I will also creep-fed the calves six weeks prior to weaning this year to try and make weaning less stressful on them.”
Land drainage
Philip is currently in the process of carrying out some drainage work on some of his more marginal-type land. This will help utilise ground better and maximise grass output per annum. One of the challenges set out for Philip at the beginning of the programme was to increase his grass output per hectare by 2t.
For more, watch the video and pick up your copy of the Irish Farmers Journal this Thursday.
BETTER farm: developments in the Banner county