Future Beef Programme on Ken Gill’s Organic Farm
Ken Gill farms his autumn calving, suckler to beef, organic farm full-time in Clonbullogue, Co Offaly. Ken and his family hosted The Future Beef Programme farmer launch on his farm recently. Aisling Molloy, Teagasc Future Beef Programme advisor gives a full account of Ken's organic farming system
About Ken's Farm
A full symbol organic producer, Ken operates an autumn calving suckler to beef system with 73 suckler cows calving from the end of July to mid-September.
All progeny are brought to beef with the aim to slaughter at 24 months. 100% A.I. is used to avail of the best genetics available. There are 121.24 ha owned and farmed in one block. This consists of:
- 69.82 ha grassland
- 20.28 ha forestry
- 14.23 ha spring oats
- 5.92 ha combi-crop (peas & wheat)
- 4.85 ha red clover
- 3.82 ha willow
Being organic means that crop rotation is vital to ensure the continued health of the soil and to aid weed suppression.
Oats are grown for sale, with a small quantity retained for feeding on the farm. Red clover/perennial ryegrass is grown for quality silage and winter fodder crops are also sown in certain areas of the farm. The soil type on the farm is grey brown podzolic and soil texture is silty clay loam. His local Teagasc Advisor is Paul Gibney.
Farmer launch of the Future Beef Programme
With that, it is fitting that Ken’s farm was the location for the recent farmer launch of the Future Beef Programme. The programme was officially launched by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue last December on Oliver O’Hara’s farm in Co. Leitrim, but due to Covid restrictions the farmers and their advisors were unable to attend.
Missing from photo: Aonghusa Fahy, John Barry, John Pringle, Ruairi Cummins, & Oliver O’Hara
Farmers in the programme travelled from all around the country to learn more about Ken’s system, with insights from local advisor Paul Gibney, Organic Specialist Elaine Leavy and Nicky Byrne from Teagasc Grange among others.
The two main focus areas for the day on Ken’s farm were his production system and the red clover silage that he is producing on farm.
Breeding - Autumn Calving
Autumn calving works well for Ken’s system, but may not be suited to all farmers. By calving at grass Ken’s calves are healthier, he finds that he can use AI easier when the cows are housed, he can wean the calves out of the shed, he gets more cheap grass into the animal’s diet and most importantly for Ken, he can finish the cattle off grass with little to none very expensive organic concentrate.
Ken does acknowledge that there are some disadvantages which include the danger of summer mastitis, high winter feed costs and the need to produce >70% DMD silage for all stock, a greater winter space requirement for calves and shorter/quieter heats in the cows versus a spring calving system.
Using 100% AI
Ken operates a 6 week breeding season in the autumn which is no easy feat for anyone, but more so if you are using 100% AI. He visually assesses cows and maiden heifers for signs of heat every 2 to 3 hours during the day from 7am to 10.30 pm. He uses the am/pm rule to inseminate them, i.e. if they are on a standing heat in the morning, they will be AI’d that evening and vice versa.
A number of years ago Ken set a goal to have a 365 day calving interval and he has worked hard on this in the last 5 years. As he uses 100% AI he picks bulls that have a high replacement index, but more than that he ensures they are negative on daughter calving interval, this means that he is using genetics to help him achieve a 365 calving interval. Milk is also extremely important as Ken wants a heavy weanling, and last but not least he looks at carcass weight for his replacements.
As a result of excellent heat detection and good fertility in the herd, Ken has a calving interval of 363 days with a 6 week calving rate of 89%.
The average Eurostar values of the cows in the herd is €112 which reflects this. He is ruthless with his culling policy and any cows that don’t go in calf are culled, which is how he achieves 1.02 calves/cow/year. All of Ken’s maiden heifers calve down at 2 years of age which reduces the greenhouse gas emissions on farm by 4-5% than if they calved at 32 months of age. When selecting them, he ensures that they have good weight for age (>380 kg at breeding to be 60% of their mature cow weight), are docile, come from good, milky dams and are 5 stars on the replacement index (with positive daughter milk figures and a negative calving interval figure).
High replacement animals have up to a 20% lower methane output/animal than lower replacement index animals and 5 star cows can deliver €60 extra profit per calf over 1 star cows.
Animal Performance
Good management of these calves from birth are crucial to their performance. Calving outdoors: They are born outside from the end of July to mid-September which tends to reduce the risk of scours at that time of year. At housing the cows are given over 70% DMD silage and 1kg of oats for 3 months over winter to ensure that they milk well. The calves are given their own separate lying space and have full time access to the cows for milk. They are also fed 1kg of oats/head and can eat the silage too.
Early in winter, Ken lets the calves to grass for a few hours each day. In early spring they spend longer at grass as their appetites begin to increase. When they are weaned in March/April, the calves are used to the grass diet and to spending time away from the cows. This reduces stress at weaning time which helps to maintain performance. It also helps to break the maternal bond which encourages the cows to come into heat sooner.
Regular weighing
Weanlings: On 15th March the heifers averaged 245 kg and the bullocks averaged 262 kg. To help reduce any parasite burdens in the younger stock, the weanlings are mixed grazed with the yearlings over their first summer. The heifers were weighed on 15th June and averaged 332 kg, having gained 0.95 kg/day since March. The bullocks weighed 359, gaining 1.06 kg/day at grass since March.
Yearlings: Over the first winter the yearlings are given >70% DMD silage along with 1-2 kg of oats/head/day. These are then turned out to grass full time around March when weather conditions and grass growth allows. The heifers were weighed on 15th June and were 585 kg, after gaining 0.85 kg/day at grass since turnout. The bullocks were 590 kg, after gaining 1.11 kg/day since turnout. They will be slaughtered this autumn.
Slaughter Records
Last year’s slaughter records make for interesting reading.
Ken slaughtered 41 steers that were an average carcass weight of 363 kg, grading R-3= on average. These animals were only 25.1 months of age and killed off grass, with no organic ration or oats fed to them.
The 21 heifers were an average carcass weight of 314 kg, grading R-3+ at 23.2 months of age off of grass. This shows that there is huge potential to reduce the age at slaughter on Irish farms, without increasing concentrate feeding levels. According to ICBF data analysed by Teagasc in 2021, the average at slaughter for suckler bred steers was 28.8 months.
Reducing the age at slaughter by one month would deliver a 0.3 to 0.5 Mt CO2e reduction per animal per month and increase profitability by €30/head.
However excellent grass management, silage quality, genetic potential and animal health practices are required to achieve this successfully.
In an organic system cattle were not traditionally paid by carcass grade at slaughter as they are with conventional beef systems. However that changed in 2021 where cattle will now be paid on a grid system with a base price paid for R grade cattle, deductions being applied to O and P grading stock, with an extra bonus being paid on U grade cattle. This will be a slight change for Ken, who will now be looking through his ICBF suckler cow performance report to identify the poorer and better grading progeny from his cows. He can then match a suitable AI bull to them, but will have to take care with the choice of breeds to ensure that the cattle can continue to be slaughtered off grass without any concentrates at 24 months of age.
Red clover silage
Ken has been growing red clover on his farm for the last number of years. He builds it into the tillage rotation to supply nitrogen to the following crop, which is typically oats but could also be wheat. An organic mix is used at sowing time which contains perennial ryegrass, white clover and red clover seed.
Red clover crops can fix atmospheric nitrogen and do not require any chemical nitrogen, which Ken is not permitted to spread in any case. However the soil fertility is very important. It requires a soil pH of over 6.5, and the field should be in index 3 or higher for both phosphorus and potassium. The fields that are in red clover on the farm have a pH of 7.1 and are in index 4 for both phosphorus and potassium.
Slurry is applied to the crop with a trailing shoe before each cut to supply adequate phosphorus and potassium to the crop, at a rate of 1,500 gallons/acre twice after the first 2 cuts and it also receives dung at end of year. Red clover silage has a high requirement for potassium in particular, and a 15 tDM/ha crop will require 300 units of potassium/acre/year. Phosphorus should be applied based on soil sample results.
Ken plans to cut the crop 3 times this year; the first cut was taken on the 16th of May and yielded 8 bales/acre, the second is planned for early July and the third cut in September. Last year he made a fourth in October to allow light into the clover over winter, but found the yield was poor and was conscious of damaging the crop. Therefore he will be mulching it back in this year. The mower height has to be adjusted to ensure that the crop is cut over 5cm. Below this height, the growing point of the red clover plant would be damaged which would kill it, which is also why red clover is less suitable for grazing than white clover.
Red clover is characterised by low dry matter, low water soluble carbohydrate concentrations and a high buffering capacity. As a result, it is more difficult to obtain a satisfactory fermentation with red clover than with all-grass silage. Therefore it is advisable to wilt for 24 to 48 hours in dry conditions to achieve 25-35% dry matter concentration. This will also concentrate sugars to encourage a desirable fermentation and reduce silage effluent production.
Silage analysis
The analysis on the red clover silage from last year showed that it was 70.2% dry matter digestibility (DMD) with 12.9% crude protein. The best grass silage was 71.1% DMD with 13.9% crude protein. These results are similar to those obtained by Nicky Byrne in Grange. Ken did find the DMD and crude protein disappointing but found that the cattle have a higher dry matter intake, meaning that cattle will eat more red clover silage than grass silage which can compensate for the lower digestibility, once intakes are not restricted.
**WARNING: Breeding ewes and red clover ** For anyone with breeding ewes, the ewes should not be allowed to graze red clover swards or eat red clover silage for a period of 6 weeks before and after mating to avoid any adverse effect of red clover oestrogens on fertility. There are no known issues with cattle fertility.
Teagasc Grange Red Clover Research
Research in Teagasc Grange found that perennial ryegrass/red clover swards receiving 0 kg N/ha produced a similar annual yield to perennial ryegrass-only swards receiving 412 kg N/ha, yielding 15.785 t DM/ha and 15.698 t DM/ha respectively when managed under a four-cut silage system.
As well as suiting an organic farming system, red clover swards have the potential to reduce chemical nitrogen inputs which would reduce fertiliser costs on conventional beef farms and help to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
Acknowledgement
The Future Beef Programme team would like to thank Ken, Celine, Elodie, Ultan, William and Margaret for hosting the launch last week, along with all the farmers, local advisors, specialists and stakeholders who participated in the informative and enjoyable day.
Celine & Ken with Frank O' Mara, Teagasc Director
You can read more about Ken’s farming system here: Ken Gill Organic Future Beef Farmer
Learn more about Future Beef Programme and participating farms here: Future Beef Programme Farmers