Nigel O’Kane
Location: Claregalway, Co. Galway
Farm Size: 22.3ha- free draining loam
System: Suckler to store
Details:
Nigel currently combines farming with running his own heating and plumbing business. He also keeps a small sheep flock which works well with managing grass. Ultimately he would like to bring all his own bred stock to slaughter-finishing bulls at either under 16 months or under 18 months and heifers before they reach 22-24 months of age.
Soil fertility is good and he has a good paddock system in place to facilitate keeping a higher stocking rate on the farm. At the minute he is buying in a small number of dairy bred calves to increase output.
Getting more milk into the cows and culling some of his beefier cows is an area he’d like to improve on over the course of the programme.
Mandatory Challenges
- Two tonne grass challenge - All farms to aim to increase by 2 Tonne/DM/ha
- Farm finance challenge - Gross margin target €1250/ha on average
- Farm safety challenge - Farms to introduce 2 positive changes annually
Optional Challenges
- Breeding challenge - Increase average replacement value of herd by €20 over course of programme and meet all herd fertility targets
- Herd health challenge - Aim to reduce antibiotic input by 20% and develop herd health pla
Updates
IFJ Articles
- IFJ - 10 June 2017(PDF)
- IFJ - 9 September 17(PDF)