The focus of the Irish Grassland Association farm walk on Billy Gilmore's farm was on setting up an efficient grazing system for beef farmers that did not require massive investment. “Grazing infrastructure doesn’t have to cost the earth,” according to Catherine Egan fof Teagasc who was speaking on setting up paddocks on the day. “It can be done in a cheap and efficient manner.”
The focus of the Irish Grassland Association farm walk on Billy Gilmore's farm was on setting up an efficient grazing system for beef farmers that did not require massive investment.
“Grazing infrastructure doesn’t have to cost the earth,” according to Catherine Egan fof Teagasc who was speaking on setting up paddocks on the day. “It can be done in a cheap and efficient manner.”
Billy traditionally operated a mixed farming enterprise, with sucklers and sheep kept on the farm. However, big changes happened on the farm in 2009 when he dropped 48 acres of rented land. This left him farming 137 acres in 10 different parcels. Of this only 39 acres are actually owned, with the remainder rented. Another change happened on the farm two years ago when Billy moved away from sucklers and began contract-rearing heifers.
These changes saw the farm move from a stocking rate of 1.22LU/ha in 2009 to 2LU/ha today, with total farm output at the same level in 2017 as it was in 2009 – on 48 acres less. Output on the farm is approximately 41,000kg of live weight per year.
“I would never be afraid of change, this system will suit a part-time farmer down the line more than sucklers would,” says Billy, who has recently entered into a partnership with his son Martin.
“If anything it has been easier to manage the stock having the higher stocking rate. The only real investment that I have had to make since then has been putting in paddocks and that was a cheap investment.”
Paddock size
The walk was held on one of Billy’s bigger blocks of land, a 40 acre parcel. Billy originally began by splitting the field into three paddocks, but over time this subdivided into seven permanent fields with the potential to divide this into 20 temporary paddocks through the use of temporary fencing.
“It only costs about 40c/metre for the fencing to split a paddock for cattle” according to Catherine.
“It’s not about doing the whole farm in the one year,” Billy added. “It doesn’t have to be fancy, you can make it as simple as possible for yourself with strip grazing.”
“I walk the farm on a weekly basis and it lets me take out paddocks that are getting too strong, I might only be getting three to five bales to the acre but I will take it out and get it back into the rotation again.”
Grassland management
Bridget Lynch, lecturer at UCD was spoke about grassland management. With growth really kicking off in the past week she noted that: “Improving soil fertility is the key issue. It is never too late to make a nutrient management plan for the year ahead.”
“Look at paddocks that got urea early in the year and didn’t budge. These are the ones that you need to look at for fertility and for maybe taking out for reseeding.
“There are a lot of damaged paddocks out there, but a lot of it will recover quite well. Too much mechanical work can stunt growth,” Bridget added.
See next week’s Irish Farmers Journal for an in-depth look at grazing infrastructure.
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