BETTER farm: On the ground with Trevor Minion

Trevor farms with help from his son Andrew just outside Wicklow town. They run a herd of 36 cows, bringing everything bar replacement heifers on to beef. Since joining the programme, they have focused not only on increasing cow and cattle numbers, but on maximising output from the farm.

The farm consists of approximately 54ha but only 37ha are in grass, with the remaining 17ha in spring barley. The farm is dry, but there are some lower and wetter areas. Along with the suckler to beef enterprise, dairy-bred calves are bought in to finish as steers.

Getting more from grass

One of the main focuses on the farm over the past few years has been maximising weight gain from grass. As on most of the farms in the programme, it was quickly realised that the greatest margin was through targeting an early turnout of cattle in the spring in order to maximise weight gain from grass as it is the cheapest feed on the farm. In addition, high levels of animal performance can be achieved off grass during the summer season.

About €1,300 was spent on 13 drinkers on the grassland section of the farm to facilitate the creation of additional paddocks. Since joining the programme, cow numbers have increased from 21 to 36, with the target of reaching 40 in the next year or two. By increasing the number of paddocks on the farm, the Minions have increased their stocking rate from 1.69LU/ha in 2011 to 2.14LU/ha in 2015. The farm is now divided into 26 sections, with all grassland divided into two- to three-day paddocks. Paddock numbers have increased from 11 at the start of the programme to 21, giving six to seven paddocks for each grazing group on the farm. This allows for a 21-day rotation.

A focus on improving soil fertility and better use of slurry and fertiliser has started to pay off in terms of the volume of grass grown.

First-cut silage is taken as pit and the remainder is made in the form of bales taken as surpluses and closed up specifically for second-cut silage.

Local adviser Martin Doyle said they have been focused on increasing farm output and are working towards reaching a stocking rate of 2.4LU/ha in the coming years. However, housing is a barrier to this on the farm.

Weight gains

All cattle were weighed on the farm in April, June and again in August. They are due to be weighed in the next few weeks again (housing).

On 28 August the spring-born bulls had an average weight of 275kg having gained 1.29kg/day since birth.

Along with this group, there are some spring-born Angus and Friesian calves sourced from a local dairy herd. This is an enterprise that Trevor and Andrew have been expanding on the farm over the past few years. It depends on the availability of stock from one local dairy farmer, as they want to ensure that the calves coming on to the farm are of high quality and are of a known health status as they will be in the same air space as home-bred stock during the winter months.

The spring-born dairy-bred calves are mostly January- and February-born. On 28 August they weighed 230kg on average and gained 0.88kg/day since birth. Since the June weighing they gained 1.16kg/day on grass and 1kg of a 16% protein concentrate.

The spring 2015-born heifers had an average date of birth of 23 February. At the end of August they weighed 263kg on average, having gained 1.21kg/day since birth.

The spring 2014-born bullocks were weighed on the same dates as the 2015-born cattle. The bullocks had an average weight of 533kg having gained 0.89kg/day since birth.

The January 2014-born Friesian bulls weighed 523kg on average at the same time with the heaviest at 600kg. They had an average daily gain from birth of 0.81kg/day.

Winter feed

As Trevor grows barley on the farm, generally the only purchased-in feed is soya bean meal and calf ration. A diet feeder is used to feed the finishing cattle and weanlings. Two different mixes are used on the farm. The weanling diet consists of rolled barley, soya and 71DMD pit silage. The ration is mixed to be about 16% crude protein. The finishing diet is about 11-12% protein and again of barley, soya and high-DMD silage.

Finishing bullocks are fed about 5-6kg of ration, while the weanlings are fed 1kg of ration per day until turnout in February.

As the sucklers are all spring-calving, they are fed silage alone during the winter months. The second cut has been tested and has come back at 68DMD. This will be used to feed the cows during the winter. The cows are coming in carrying good condition and are a little on the fat side. With 68DMD silage in the yard, Trevor is considering restricting the silage slightly over the next two months to reduce condition. Ideally, fat cows should be restricted while those in target condition can be fed ad-lib.

To reduce labour, and because the diet feeder is a paddle feeder, they will not mix straw into the diet. However, they may consider feeding straw every third day to the cows with ad-lib silage in between.

Finishing cattle

This year Trevor has drafted a group of bullocks that have just been sent for slaughter. These are Friesian and Angus bullocks that weighed 735kg at 24 months and were killed at 370kg carcase. They were finished outside at grass with about 4kg to 5kg ration, split between two feeds, morning and evening.

The remainder of the steers are housed and will be finished in January-February. Last year’s batch of bullocks were drafted for slaughter from January to March and had an average carcase weight of 379kg. The homebred continentals had carcase weights of 400-425kg at 23-25 months of age. They graded R and U. The bought-in Holsteins mostly graded O=/+ with two grading as Ps.

The heifers had an average carcase weight of 348kg at 23-26 months of age. They were predominantly U and R grades.

ADVISER COMMENT

Peter Lawrence: Since joining the BETTER farm programme, Trevor has made great progress in improving his grassland management skills such as turning cattle out to grass earlier, grazing paddocks tighter in spring, sub-dividing paddocks to protect plant re-growths to grow more grass and reseeding paddocks. This has allowed him provide adequate quality feed for his expanding suckler herd and dairy-beef enterprise at no major cost. The farm stocking rate has increased from 1.69 LU/ha in 2011 to over 2.14 LU/ha in 2015 and allowed for increased performance and output of beef/ha. Gross output on the farm has increased from €1,200/ha in 2011 to €1,700/ha in 2014 and, while production costs have remained similar, gross margin has increased from €455/ha to €855/ha.