The final episode in the Tullamore Farm webinar series took place on Tuesday night at 8.30pm.

The programme focused on the 2020 financial performance and the next steps for the farm.

This is currently the fifth year of a 15-year lease taken out on the farm.

Unique

The farm is quite unique in that it has no single farm payment, while also having to pay a full land charge and full labour charge.

The farm is also paying back over €20,000 annually in interest on borrowed money.

No beef system at current beef prices would be able to return a sufficient margin to cover the costs without a single farm payment and Tullamore Farm is no different.

One scenario featured in the webinar was if the farm was owned, had its own labour, a low level of borrowings and an average single farm payment, what effect this would have on the bottom line.

Beef or sheep

There is always huge farmer interest into what system is performing best - sheep or beef.

The webinar included a full breakdown of the costs associated with each system and what system is performing best from a financial point of view.

At the moment, there is a 90-cow suckler herd and a 230-ewe midseason lambing flock.

Male progeny from the suckler herd are finished as under-16-month bulls, with heifers being sold as in-calf heifers at 19 to 20 months of age.

Technically, the farm is performing well, with the farm currently stocked at 2.25LU/ha, with 870kg liveweight/ha being produced.

Output per LU currently stands at 386kg.

The team was joined by beef enterprise leader in Teagasc, Grange, Dr Paul Crosson to talk about some different options for the farm, with particular reference to the beef system on the farm.

Paul had some interesting analysis on what these changes he would make for the bottom line and how they would affect the sheep system.

If you would like to submit questions on the webinar, you can email webinar@farmersjournal.ie or WhatsApp 086-836 6465.