Olivia targets improvements in Breeding & Soil Fertility

Olivia targets improvements in Breeding and Soil Fertility

Olivia Hynes is a full-time farmer on 74.8ha of family-owned land outside Four Roads, Roscommon. Of that, 17.2ha is around the main farmyard in Jamestown, 47.4ha is in Kilcash, and the remaining 10.2ha is rented land in Taghboy.

Olivia is part of the Teagasc Future Beef programme. The aim of this Programme is to demonstrate to beef farmers how they can produce a quality product as efficiently as possible to make beef farming more profitable while also making it more environmentally sustainable.

Olivia runs an intensive mixed grazing enterprise, with 63 cows calving in 2022. Weanlings are targeted for the export sales from September to January, annually. She keeps 10-12 heifers as replacements annually. Olivia is using 75pc AI and has bought a 5-star bull, based on both replacement and terminal indices.

Olivia complements the suckler enterprise with an early to mid- season ewe flock. Scanning and weaning percentages are excellent, with all lambs finished off grass to factory specification.

Over 90pc of the farm is free-draining brown acid soil, with moderate to good fertility. Olivia has been working on improving fertility for a number of years and liming is a priority to correct pH levels. Jamestown and Kilcash are both elevated farms but receive typical West of Ireland amounts of rainfall. Olivia is stocked at 120 kg N/ ha with her mixed grazing enterprise. She hopes to increase this figure by improving efficiencies on the farm. Jamestown farm is well paddocked and is divided by a farm road. Kilcash farm is not paddocked yet and the construction of grazing infrastructure including paddocks, roadways and water supply is a priority over the next number of years. This will allow Olivia to maximise the proportion of grazed grass in the diet of all animals, reducing costs and GHG emissions.

All farm buildings are in relatively good condition, with housing facilities on both farms. Olivia has excellent handling facilities and plenty of slurry storage. 

Breeding performance

Olivia’s aim is to tighten calving intervals and calving spread drastically in the next few years. This will improve the efficiency of the farm and profitability, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She has 63 cows with an average Cow Replacement index of €114 and an average HeiferTop of Form

Bottom of Form

 Replacement index of €106. Her calves per cow per year is 0.92.

Olivia’s plan is to maintain cow numbers but to increase the efficiency. Calves per cow per year and liveweight performance at grass are the key focus areas for the next few years. So, breeding management and getting the grazing infrastructure set up will be a priority.

Soil fertility

Olivia also wants to improve soil fertility; she will use protected urea on a more regular basis as supply becomes consistent, which will help reduce emissions. Protected urea is one of the easier technologies to implement to reduce emissions. She intends using low emission slurry spreading (LESS) as a means of reducing nutrient losses to the environment and increasing grass growth in early Spring. Using LESS will give Olivia greater flexibility around grazing ground spread with slurry and will supply an additional three units of nitrogen for every 1,000 gallons of slurry spread. This is an important consideration, particularly when fertiliser is so expensive. Olivia is interested in reseeding more of the out-farm, after paddocking is completed, and include multi-species leys. Multi-species swards can reduce the demand for chemical nitrogen usage.

More updates on the progress of all farms involved in the programme will be available on the Teagasc Future Beef Website.