Ger McSweeney

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Ger farms with his wife Karen and daughter Ella in Tooreenbawn, Milstreet, Co. Cork. He works full-time on farm.

He is farming 25.31 adjusted Ha (38.6Ha non-adjusted) in four blocks. 13.22Ha is owned and 12.09 is rented. The soil is a heavy mineral soil. Over the last number of years Ger has concentrated on improving the drainage & soil fertility to allow him to get stock out earlier and keep them out. 

He is stocked at 168kg N/Ha on adjusted land area, and 110kg N/Ha on total land area.

Ger runs a suckling to beef system consisting of 35 spring – calving suckler cows. The males are finished as under 16 months bull beef, while the heifers, not retained for breeding, are finished at 23-24 months. He is using 100% A.I. to allow him to use the best genetics available. This year Ger installed an Alflex Sense hub to aid in heat detection. 

The farm is well paddocked with 37 main divisions on the farm with the ability to split field with temporary fencing. Ger is measuring grass and using PBI. Infrastructure is very good on the farm, with good housing.

His Teagasc Advisor is Shane Randles.

Breeding Performance

No. of cows: 35
Cow replacement index: 118
Heifer replacement index: 128
Calves per cow per year: 0.91

Ger's Plan

His plan is to get to 40 suckler cows and to increase the efficiency on farm. Reducing the age at slaughter for heifers and increasing the amount of grass grown through improved soil fertility are the main focus areas. Ger also wants to look at using more protected urea, increasing calves/cow/year and incorporating clover to reduce chemical N usage.