William Treacy

Address: Hackballscross, Dundalk, Co. Louth

Farm Size: 68 ha all owned

Farming system: 100 suckler cows selling bulls at store stage off grass and finishing heifers on farm

Farm Plan: In phase 1 of the BETTER farm programme Willie achieved €1000/ha gross margin and aims to increase this to €1500/ha by the end of phase 2. For this to be achieved the farm needs to carry a stocking rate of over 2.5 LU/ha. Since the beginning of phase 1 the farm has benefitted from extra reseeding and more paddock grazing allowing a higher output to be achieved from a grass based system. The farm now has 100 cows calving in total and the aim is to tighten calving spread to a shorter period. This will streamline labour input more.