Milk and maternal traits are the buzz words among Irish suckler farmers. The current focus on maternal traits brought about by the Beef Data and Genomics Progamme (BDGP) has succeeded in getting farmers focused on improving the key drivers of profit in the suckler system.

Padraig O’Malley is a farmer who was a little ahead of his time, having taken action to bring milk back into the herd over ten years ago. Padraig is a part-time farmer based just outside Newport in Co Mayo. Like many farmers around the country, Padraig has the difficulties of coping with a small, fragmented land block, consisting of mixed-quality land.

Padraig runs a small herd of 12 spring-calving cows. The current batch of calves were all born in March, April and May. Turnout usually occurs in mid-late April depending on weather. The grazing season is very short on the farm and cows have been housed now for over a month as they were damaging ground.

On the issue of autumn grazing and cleaning out covers, Teagasc adviser John Noonan said: “Padraig took the correct steps a month ago by housing the cows due to the poor weather conditions. The weanlings are weaned and are out grazing off the high covers on the paddocks, are healthier and keeping costs down.”

He added that: “There is a good opportunity for cattle farmers with no light stock to take in sheep and graze out fields in a planned approach of grazing and closing sections with all sheep removed by early December. This will have two advantages by cleaning out paddocks and secondly getting additional income.”

Weather making farming difficult

Like many farmers on heavy land across the country, weather can have a massive effect on the profitability of the system. The past summer and autumn was very difficult for Padraig. In a typical year, he plans for cows being housed for five to six months. The wet weather during the summer months this year meant that grazing the heavier fields on the farm was almost impossible.

In addition, although the past few weeks of dry weather have given a huge respite in terms of grassland management, Padraig still chose not to turn the cows back to grass.

When questioned on the merit of this, he replied: “Fields have firmed up a bit in the past few weeks, but if I let cows out again, they would have gone through the grass very fast. I am looking at selling in-calf heifers in a special €uro-Star sale at Ballina mart in November, so I wanted to keep them out at grass until they are sold.”

He said that while the cows are housed on good-quality silage, the calves are creeping out to grass. In addition, the calves are getting about a kilo of meal per head per day. The current plan is to graze off the heavy grass covers with the in-calf heifers and weanlings. Padraig is considering letting some of the grass on the heaviest areas of the farm to a sheep farmer in order to get them cleaned off. He favours this option, as he is not a sheep lover himself, having farmed sheep in the past.

Breeding change

The land type and lack of milk in the herd prompted him to change the cow type on the farm, which would traditionally have been Limousin and Charolais crosses.

He wanted a smaller cow with plenty of milk and who is capable of breeding good-quality, saleable cattle, as he traditionally sold bull calves as weanlings.

While looking at the different breed options, one breed he considered was the Simmental. Being big growth animals with plenty of milk, they were ticking a lot of the boxes. But, having viewed some Simmental suckler cows, he felt that cow size may have been an issue for him given the land type.

In 2005, he travelled to Germany to look at Fleckvieh cattle, a dual-purpose animal bearing a strong resemblance to the Simmentals, but a little smaller in size. He took the plunge and purchased 10 in-calf heifers and brought them home to become the foundation herd. Since then he has kept a clear focus on maintaining milk in the herd, while trying to bring more conformation through in the calves.

Breeding for replacement market

Given the cow types, and the focus on maternal traits over the years, it was a no brainer for Padraig to produce in-calf heifers for sale. Padraig has been using ICBF’s Herdplus from the outset, but is not currently in the BDGP. At the time it was open for applications, the negative talk about the scheme combined with his own perception that there would be a lot of paperwork turned him off applying.

Now, having greater knowledge of the scheme, and having talked to farmers in it, he feels like that it was a missed opportunity and would like to apply to enter the scheme if it reopens.

The number sold each year varies depending on the number of replacements needed. This year he has four heifers which have been bred to a Simmental bull that is both five stars on replacement and terminal index. They have been entered into the special €uro-Star replacement heifer sale at Ballina mart on 8 November. This is the first time he has entered the heifers into a special sale, but is hoping that having a larger number of buyers present will help the price on the day.

Three years ago, a group of farmers in the Mayo area, came together with the help of Teagasc’s John Noonan to form a group to plan a special €uro-Star sale in their area. This, the third annual sale, has been organised by Teagasc Mayo, Mayo Sligo Mart, and ICBF.

The sale’s main aim is to provide a venue where buyers can source from a large number of maiden heifers, quality with strong maternal indexes. The west of Ireland has a great tradition of using high levels of AI over the years, resulting in a good supply of high index animals available.

The sale criteria include only maidens born after January 2015, be over 350kg and a minimum of four and five star on the replacement index, many with €uro-Star values over €85. All heifers are bred from suckler dams and have a maximum of two movements. A percentage of the heifers will have a completed genomic test, meaning that the stars they possess will change very little. There will be approximately 70 heifers all pre inspected with extreme muscled and poorer quality stock not allowed in, regardless of their stars.

According to Billy Loftus, manager of Mayo Sligo Mart, “the sale is a good opportunity for farmers in the BDGP scheme to look forward to 2018 to meet their quota requirement under the scheme”.

“The BDGP scheme has meant farmers are putting more thought into the type of heifer replacements they are keeping. I deal with a lot of suckler farmers who want milky fertile heifers to add to their existing herd. Farmers for years wanted information on heifers going through marts. These heifers have pedigree information and €uro-Star ratings. The genomic proofs will add to the reliability of the indexes figures available,” said Alan Nolan of Teagasc Ballinrobe.

“A well-organised sale will help suckler farmers to find the type of replacements that will tick all the boxes for them going forward,’ said Tom Kelly of Teagasc Ballina.

“The sale is a great way for farmers to market good-quality starred replacement heifers that are surplus to requirements,” said Enda Geoghegan of Teagasc Ballina.