Future Beef Newsletter May 2024
Ken Gill
John Pringle - Farm Update | John Dunne - Farm Update | Top Tips for May | Dates for your Diary
Dates for your Diary
Thursday, June 13
National walk on Shane Keaveney’s farm, Granlahan, Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon
Wednesday, June 26
BEEF2024 – ‘Securing your future’ at Teagasc Grange, Co. Meath
Farm Profile - Ken Gill
Ken Gill is operating an organic farm in Co. Offaly
Ken Gill farms full-time on his own in Clonbullogue, Co. Offaly. He is trading as Ballydermot Organic Farm Ltd. A full symbol organic producer, Ken operates a suckler-to-beef system, with 70 autumn-calving suckler cows. All progeny are brought to beef with the aim of finishing at 24 months. 100% AI is used to avail of the best genetics available.
Being organic means that crop rotation is vital to ensure the continued health of the soil and to aid weed suppression in new swards. Oats are grown for sale into the organic breakfast market. Red clover for quality silage and winter fodder crops are also sown in certain areas of the farm. The farm is 95ha in one large block, all of which is owned. Soil type on the farm is grey brown podzolic, and soil texture is silty clay loam.
Ken's farm has a mix of older buildings and some recently converted housing, ample slurry and farmyard manure (FYM) storage.
There is currently 22ha of forestry on his farm, with 12.5ha of semi-natural woodland that was under planted with oak, 4.85ha of oak planted in 1998, 3.3ha under the Native Woodland Scheme, and some native woodland under ESB power lines. There is also 4.8ha of short rotation coppice willow used to supply the nearby power station. Click on ‘Read more’ to get the full overview of Ken’s operation.
Farm Update - Ken Gill
Ken is firmly focused on catching up on field work since the weather has improved. He has spring oats, a pea/wheat combination crop mix and grass seed to sow across 47 acres on the farm. However, he has been planning for next winter’s feed since early spring. The autumn-born calves grazed the silage fields in spring and these have been closed since early March. Some of the fields were spread with 2,500 gallons/acre of cattle slurry using a low-emission slurry spreading (LESS) umbilical system, as Ken wanted to avoid damaging the fields with a much heavier tanker. Other fields were too wet to spread slurry and grass covers are now too heavy, so they will receive 2,500 gallons of cattle slurry/acre after cutting. Ken tries to avoid cutting fields more than once per year in his organic system to avoid removing excess nutrients; therefore, his fodder plan is as follows:
• cut 31 acres of designated first-cut silage in mid to late May;
• cut 25 acres of red clover silage (three cuts and mulched);
• take out heavy paddocks of grass where possible – Ken is using PastureBase Ireland (PBI) to make decisions on this;
• sow 30 acres of turnips, rape and kale for the store cattle; and,
• harvest 17 acres of the pea/wheat combination crop bales for feeding to cows after weaning.
To see more about Ken’s plans for the next couple of months, click ‘Read more’.
But how much feed does Ken need to make this year? And will he opt for a bulky first cut over quality? Watch his video update below.
Farm Update - John Pringle
John Pringle will be ensuring he has enough silage for the coming winter
Spring 2024 has been long and hard, and has tested the resolve of most farmers in Ireland. The south east is used to much shorter winters and even though John Pringle thought he had a silage reserve, things were very tight, and he says: “I won’t be making that mistake again”.
John was thankful for his vaccination programme for preventing scour in the calves: “I vaccinate for Rotavirus, Coronavirus and E.Coli. With the long spring, late turn out and shortage of straw, I only had a small scrape with two calves in late April. I gave them an electrolyte as soon as I saw them dull and they pulled out of it okay”.
The breeding season is due to kick off on May 10, explains John: “I have the bulls out ‘limbering up’. I fed the cows 1.5kg of concentrate when inside, so they would not lose condition. It has paid off as they are bulling strong. I plan to bolus them now as I have applied lime recently and am worried about copper lock up”.
Fertiliser is out on grazing ground. This is 20 units of nitrogen (N) as protected urea and a half bag of 18-20-0 per acre to kick growth off. Silage ground was grazed with sheep and closed. This ground received an application 2,500 gallons of slurry per acre and this is to be followed by a bag of urea (46%) and cut in late May. Hedges and trees have been planted and fenced, and there has been a lot of hard work in a hard spring. For further information on John’s plans, click ‘Read more’.
Mixed grazing on sheep and cattle on John's farm
Farm Update - John Dunne
John Dunne got cattle grazing in mid April, a month later than normal
John farms a total of 125ha between owned and leased land. He lives in Tinacrannagh, just on the outskirts of Portarlington. He farms full-time and is also helped by his son James in the evenings and on weekends. It is a busy farm, with 90 suckler cows calving from the beginning of February. Like most spring-calving herds, getting calved cows out to grass this spring has been a challenge. In addition, there are a lot of priority stock, such as yearlings, that had to be housed longer than planned. John managed to get cattle out grazing in the middle of April, over a month later than normal.
As a result of a longer winter period, silage reserves have become depleted and need to be built up in 2024. Some of the paddocks on the grazing platform have become too heavy to graze. Slurry has been applied to half of the silage ground. John plans to cut silage in the third week of May after reducing the chemical N to 60 units per acre at closing in April. Getting back on track in terms of managing grass covers and making sufficient fodder is a priority at the moment. Find out how John plans to do this by clicking ‘Read more’.
Heavy grass covers on John’s farm in Rathfeston