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Kingscourt, Co Cavan
Enterprise: 40-cow spring calving, suckler herd 
“I’m a part-time farmer and dependent on off-farm income but I’m bitten with the beef cattle disease and there’s no cure for it.
“The BDGP and the BEEP scheme are making a difference to profitability. The weaning efficiency is a big thing. You can have 500kg cows weaning 300kg calves at a 200-day weaning weight and then you have 700kg cows doing the same and maybe less.
“I haven’t had a caesarean for years. It means smaller vet bills and I have an easier time on the farm. Calving ease and docility are my two biggest criteria because I’m working on my own most of the time.”
Mount Temple, Co Westmeath
Enterprise: dairy calf-to-beef
“I think there’s a big future in dairy calf-to-beef but beef prices need to be between €5/kg and €5.50/kg to make it worthwhile.
“If we could work a bit better with dairy farmers to improve the quality of calves and focus on the dairy-beef index there’s definitely a future in it.
“I was a suckler farmer previous to this but I found it very hard to carry enough cows to turn enough money to make it a viable enterprise.”
Crossdoney, Co Cavan
Enterprise: 35-cow pedigree Limousin herd 
“They talk about the dairy calf-to-beef system but you really need to know what you’re at.
“I see farmers on the dairy calf-to-beef scheme and they’ve run into a lot of trouble with pneumonia and scours. They got no advice from what I could see and the vet never left the yard.
“At €5/kg base you’re probably still no better off with the higher cost of inputs than you were 12 months ago.
“I wouldn’t cut cow numbers; we have a fairly good culling programme that if a cow runs on a long time or doesn’t have a calf, we would kill her regardless of stars. This year the market was tight for Limousin bulls, Angus seems to be the main way they’re going.”
Knocklong, Co Limerick
Enterprise: 39-cow suckler herd
“The future of suckler farming is a bit of a grey area at the minute.
“This year there was a lot more stress price-wise with fertiliser. Other years you were able to get it and come back and pay for it whereas now you’re not. You’re waiting until they’re (cattle) ready and it’s not until the tail end of the year that you can sell them.
“We’ll keep the same cow numbers, we have a low stocking rate for the amount of land we have and our sheds are fairly good.
“But we’ve cut back on silage making because of the cost of it. We’re fortunate we’ve a good bit of hay left over from last year.”
Kinnegad, Co Westmeath
Enterprise: Store to beef
“At my age, I find drystock a handy way to farm. I buy store Charolais at about 300kg-350kg, mostly in the spring, and try and have them ready for market in a year. We got €5.35/kg for cattle recently, but I just learned today that they have dropped to €4.90/kg. I got a bit of a shock when I heard that.
“I kept the same number of stock this year and spread the same amount of fertiliser. For silage, if you don’t spread it, you won’t get the return but one thing’s for sure, reseeding is the answer and new grass makes a hell of a difference.”
Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny
Enterprise: dairy calf-to-beef
“Meat factories are the bane of every farmer’s life. All the cattle now that are coming up to 30 months old, they know they are going to get them. It’s a sad way to work but they are making a pile of money out of it.
“I got rid of a few cattle last week, but I was listening to the radio coming up this morning and beef price has dropped about 30c/kg.
“Everything was very dear this year, especially fertiliser. I usually spread about 100kg of nitrogen but I only spread 80kg this year. My silage cost me €150/ac to make as well.”
Walsh Island, Co Offaly
Enterprise: Sucklers and dairy calf-to-beef
“I hope there’s a future in beef farming. We are trying to take everything on board that’s here today, you’d be looking to control your costs because we have no control of our end price.
“Beef price has been decent but we haven’t got advantage of it because we haven’t sold anything, we don’t sell until winter.
“Our son is in the early stages of setting up a Wagyu beef herd.
“We cut back on fertiliser use by about a quarter. It didn’t seem to be too bad. The cuts of silage were good.”
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