John Lalor

Farmer Profile: John Lalor

Ballyfin, Co. Laois

Teagasc Adviser: Paul Gilligan

John and his sons Matthew and John Clyde are farming 41ha of grass and 48ha of tillage at present. This is a very dry farm of land running heifers only and finishing out of the shed at 22 months of age. John was in suckling but decided a few years ago to get out of cows and concentrate solely on a calf to beef enterprise. He slaughters 100 Angus or Hereford heifers each year. He has become very professional at rearing calves as he bought 100 calves last spring and has 99 weanlings for grass. He has a very cheap system of wintering his weanling calves. They are fed silage and meal in a straw bedded shed but have access at all times to stubble ground outside. These cattle are very fit and healthy and will be ready to put on weight as soon as they start grazing grass.

John has reseeded the farm over the last few years as a result of rotating tillage ground and now he needs to put a paddock system in place. He is highly stocked and if he had a paddock system in place, he could push this on further. John Jnr. is also very interested in driving output on the farm and they both have agreed that they would reduce tillage ground if necessary and rear more calves if the figures stack up. The Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef Programme will give John and his family advice on grassland management, herd health, stocking rate and this will help increase profit on this farm.