Tom Murphy

Address: The Square, Durrow, Co. Laois

Farm Size: 76 ha all owned (Divided into 4 separate blocks)

Soil type: Mix of Ballylanders and Elton soil series (Mix of fine loamy drift with Limestone, shale and slate bedrock) - Free draining farm suitable for early turn-out in spring

Farming system: Spring calving calf-to-store/finish system with mid-season ewe lambing flock and tillage enterprises

Farm plan: To streamline the system by calving all cows in the spring time and phasing out the autumn calving herd over time. Traditionally, 25 cows calved in the autumn and 40 in the spring. Now the aim is to calve 70 cows in a 12 week calving period From January to March. All heifers will be finished at 22 months of age. Male calves are castrated at 8 months of age and the heaviest are sold at 12-13 months of age with the lighter steers finished on farm at 23-24 months. Replacements are bred from maternal Limousin stock bull. Extra paddocks and water drinkers have been installed on the farm to help increase the stocking rate and grass growing potential.

This farm will aim to demonstrate maximising animal live weight gain from grazed grass.