Shane Keaveney January/February Update 2025
Plans to maximise new land block
- Extra 14 acres being leased
- Plans for grazing
- Fencing and water supply plan
e-profit monitor results
- 2024 profit monitor completed
- Net profit is up from 2023
- Analysis of results
Grassland
Shane is taking an extra 14 acres of land on a long term lease from 2025. It is located beside the farmyard on the out farm that he was previously renting and is a welcome addition to the land block. While Shane plans to increase to 40 cows in the near future and possibly buy in some extra dairy beef calves, this year he wants to graze yearling heifers on it.
Figure 1: Part of the 14 acres taken on a long term lease
There are no paddocks in place on the land block and he is trying to decide where is the most practical place to divide it and to add water troughs to make the most use out of it. He is planning to put one central fence across the middle of the field. He’ll fence this with semi-permanent pencil stakes and bull wire that can be moved later if needs be. He’ll then use a reel and temporary stakes to further subdivide the paddocks. These can be used to adjust paddock sizes if the group size changes or if he wishes to cut silage from strong paddocks.
At present if he grazes 29 heifers at an average weight of 450kg, he will need paddock sizes of 0.95 acres to last them for 3 days.
Water is available on the farm so Shane plans to run a pipe from an existing trough to add 3 extra troughs than can be easily accessed by cattle from where he subdivides the paddocks. The troughs can also be moved along the fence if needs be, so an extra roll of piping will be left alongside it for this purpose.
In the long term, this will give Shane the flexibility to cut silage and to make more permanent paddocks when he has settled on the stock numbers that will be available to graze the land.
Figure 2: Plan for temporary fencing and movable water troughs on leased land
Performance
Shane weighed his bulls (24) on 14th January. They averaged 436kg and had gained 1.6kg/day since their previous weighing on 18th December. They are ranging from 368 to 534kg. Their average birth date is 10th March 2024 so they are well on target to weigh 500kg at 12 months of age.
Figure 3: Some of the finishing bulls
The 2024 born suckler heifers (9) were weighed on 4th January and averaged 330kg. They gained 0.51kg/day on average since 21st December. Shane is planning to sell some of them live in the spring and they are currently being fed 1.6kg of ration/head/day.
The 2024 dairy beef heifers (19) were also weighed on 4th January and they averaged 259kg. They gained 0.89 kg/day on average since 21st December and are also eating 1.6kg of ration/head/day.
Figure 4: Some of the dairy beef and suckler heifers
Financial
Shane has completed his profit monitor for 2024. On analysis of the cattle detailed report, he is happy with the farm’s financial and physical performance this year.
The first figure on the report is the output per livestock unit which was 381 kg/LU. This was a decrease since 2023 where the figure was 422 kg/LU, but it is well ahead of the target >350 kg/LU for a suckler system. This figure is affected by everything that affects weight gain in the herd - the cow fertility, bull fertility, mortality, genetics, nutrition at grass, winter performance, ration fed, animal health and calving spread. Shane has been focusing on increasing output through starting dairy beef enterprise on the farm. That, combined with the high output bull beef system and excellent management is giving him very good performance per livestock unit on the farm.
The stocking rate on the farm is 1.7 LU/ha or 130 kg organic N/ha which means that Shane is not in derogation.
The gross output figure is calculated from cattle sales minus cattle purchases and add/subtract any changes to the inventory. Shane had a gross output figure of €2251/ha which is the main ‘money in the pot’ to cover variable and fixed costs. This increased by 12% from €1996/ha in 2023.
The 3 biggest expenses on drystock farms are purchased concentrate, fertiliser and contractor costs. Shane’s farm is no different with his biggest costs for the year;
- Ration €647/ha (increase of €7/ha since 2023)
- Contractor: €175/ha (increase of €1/ha since 2023)
- Fertiliser: €152/ha (increase of €3/ha since 2023)
In total, the total variable costs (€1284/ha) were 57% of the gross output figure, which is slightly higher than the target of <55% for a bull beef system. It is however well back on 2023 where it was 64% - due to a higher beef price and controlling costs on the farm.
The fixed costs were €553 for 2024 which is similar to 2023. Machinery depreciation increased slightly due to the purchase of a new teleporter, attachments and a diet feeder. For 2024 the cattle enterprise made €413/ha net margin which does not include any direct payments or subsidies. This is a 74% increase from €190/ha in 2023.