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Future Beef Newsletter July 2024

Eamon & Donnchadh McCarthy

Farmer Profile | Farm Update

Trevor Boland - Farm Update | Shane Keaveney - Farm Update | Top Tips for July | Dates for your Diary | Beef Edge Podcast

Top tips for July


Dates for your Diary

  • Friday July 12, 2024: 

National walk on Ken Gill’s farm, Clonbullogue, Edenderry, Co. Offaly at 6.30pm

  • Friday July 26, 2024: 

National walk on Eamon and Donnchadh McCarthy’s farm, Carrigeen, Glendine, Youghal, Co. Waterford at 7.00pm

  • Wednesday September 11 2024:

National walk on Shane Keaveney’s farm, Granlahan, Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon 


Farm Profile - Eamon & Donnchadh McCarthy

Eamonn & Donnchadh McCarthy Future Beef farmers

Donnchadh & Eamon McCarthy

Eamon and his son Donnchadh are farming in Carrigeen, Glendine, Youghal, Co. Waterford. Both work part-time on the farm. In addition, Eamonn works as a relief milker and Donnchadh has a full-time off farm job.

They farm 45.47ha in 3 blocks including 4.6ha in barley and 11.7ha in Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The soil type is a free draining brown topsoil with a reddish hue in the majority of the farm. The parent material is sandstone. In contrast part of the farm has a poorly drained black soil with the SAC land consisting of mudlands with sand, silt and seashells. The main farm is 380ft above sea level, while the SAC ground is -2ft below sea level.

Eamon and Donnchadh are running a suckling to beef enterprise split into Spring (60%) and Autumn (40%) calving consisting of 51 suckler cows. The males are finished as under 16 month bull beef, while the heifers, not retained for breeding, are finished at 22.5 months. They mainly breed their own heifers as replacements and calve them at 24 months of age. 100% AI is used on the farm with bulls selected for high replacement figures for breeding initially and then a high terminal sire used for the rest. This year they invested in the Sensehub system for heat detection and health monitoring.

Eamon and Donnchadh are measuring grass and using PBI for the last number of years. Paddocks are permanently fenced to last 1.5 – 3 days depending on the grazing group size. Over 130t of lime was spread on the farm in 2022 and they grew an extra 2.6 t DM/ha of grass in 2023 as a result.

Read more here.


Farm Update – Eamon & Donnchadh McCarthy

While Eamon and Donnchadh were delighted to get their first cut silage of 183 bales made on 21st May, re-growths for second cut silage have slowed on the farm. Slurry has been spread at a rate of 2500 gallons/acre and it was topped up with 2 bags of 29% N + 14% K + S protected urea/acre on 31 acres. Eamon has noticed that the fields cut earliest have the best covers on them but other silage and grazing fields have lower growth rates.They will need 610 bales of silage for this winter and are already making plans to ensure they have enough fodder.

They are reducing demand at grass by;

  • Feeding 1 bale of silage/day to cows and calves to avoid grazing silage ground
  • Finishing heifers and cull cows are housed; they’re being drafted for finish as they come fit
  • Autumn calving cows are being restricted at grass
  • Spring herd will be scanned and culls will be drafted for feeding in August
  • If there are more than 35 spring cows in calf, there is an option to sell them live

35 units of protected urea/acre was spread to help build grass covers in early June. Eamon’s opinion is that the land needs heat more than rain at present and is happy to see growth rates improve over the last 2 weeks to 45 kg DM/ha/day.

Click here to read more about the feeding management and breeding season progress.

Watch video below as Eamon and Donnchadh discuss their upcoming farm walk on 26th July. 


Farm Update - Trevor Boland

Trevor Boland farms part-time in Bunnafedia, Drumard, Co. Sligo. He is married to Tara and is farming in partnership with his father Joseph. He works full time off -farm as an accountant with IFAC.

The farm size is 48Ha and is fragmented into 3 main blocks. The suckler herd consists of 50 cows that calving compactly in August and September mainly. The male progeny are sold as bulls close to 500kgs the following July. Heifers are either kept for replacements and the remainder sold live at 18-20 months.

Similar to a lot of farms grass growth has dropped significantly in June. To reduce demand, Trevor has sold three dry cows .If needed he also has the option of grazing some silage ground that is closed for a second cut. There is close to 300 bales made this year up 40 bales with the same amount of acres. So fodder wise, he is in a good position. The farm has been blanket spread with fertiliser and Trevor is confident that growth soon start to outpace the demand of the herd and build the days ahead back to 14. A big advantage of the autumn calving system is that the cows are been currently restricted to keep them fit for calving. As a result it is taking some of the pressure off the grassland.

Trevor has also 5 acres taken out for reseeding and he will have this completed as soon as possible. The bulls are priority with an upcoming sale date in July. Trevor has increased the meal to 2kgs/head/day.

Read more here.

Cattle eating ration at grassTrevor has increased meal to 2 kgs/head/day


Farm Update - Shane Keaveney

Shane and Grainne Keaveny Future Beef Farmer

Shane and his wife Grainne

Shane Keaveney farms with his wife Grainne and 3 children just outside the town of Ballinlough in Co. Roscommon. June has been a particular busy month. Shane’s time has been centred on breeding, grass and drafting the bulls for slaughter.

Breeding has gone well. The CH bull has been out with the cows since April 30th and while there are odd repeats the bull has had very little to do in the last three weeks. This year, Shane has picked 10 of his best maternal cows for AI. To reduce the labour requirement he has followed a synchronised programme with fixed time AI. He has kept the cows close to the shed on ground that he reseeded last year. The Simmental bull LYNX has been used in order to bring milk back into the herd. Shane will also AI five maiden heifers.

By the end of June there will be just 5 bulls left for slaughter. The bulls are ahead of last year group in terms of weight and age of slaughter. On average the slaughter age has been reduce by three weeks. There has been no issue with fat class and grading.

The story is not as good on the grassland side. Growth rates have fallen in mid to late June. In order to reduce demand and build grass covers, Shane had to re house 10 store heifers. The colder weather has also affected the growth of the red clover crop. Shane is planning a holiday with his family in July, he is hoping that growth rates improve before he goes.

Read more here.

Housed heifers10 store heifers are re-housed due to poor grass


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