Pat Bowden

Farmer Profile: Pat Bowden

Ballyragget, Co. Kilkenny

Teagasc Adviser: Terry Carroll

Pat is a young farmer who has recently taken over the home farm. He farms 107ha of grass, where the land type is heavy for this part of the country. He is running 40 suckler cows and sells some of these as stores at 18 months and slaughters more of them as bullocks and heifers at 24 months. There has always been a tradition of rearing calves on this farm and last year he reared 70 Friesian bullocks.

Pat has been reclaiming, fencing and reseeding land over the last few years and as result of this he is not highly stocked. Pat will gain invaluable advice about herd health, reseeding, grassland management and utilisation from the Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef Programme. There are many options available to Pat, from finishing bullocks out of shed at 24 months to finishing off grass at 26-30 months. The key tools for Pat going forward will be reseeding and using a paddock system. There is huge scope for Pat to increase output and profit on this farm and he is very interested and driven by the new programme. He was working off farm but is now at home full-time. Pat has a great asset and now needs to drive output from it, he is young, enthusiastic and willing to work hard which is a great start.