What's working for Future Beef farmer Ger McSweeney and his plans for the future

Aisling Molloy tells us about Ger McSweeney who is farming over 31ha in Toorenbawn, Millstreet with his wife Karen and their daughter Ella.

They operate a spring calving suckler to beef system with bulls finished at 15.1 months of age and heifers finished at 21 months. Ger uses 100% AI on the farm, which he is licensed to carry out himself. The carbon footprint for 2022 is 10.1 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per kg of live weight gain, and Ger plans to reduce this over the coming years.

Breeding

The herd size has grown from 30 cows in 2018 to 38 in 2023 and Ger’s aim is to calve 40 suckler cows annually. The replacement index of the herd has increased from €98 in 2018 to €133 in 2023. In 2021 Ger experienced an abortion storm in the herd which was caused by the parasite, neospora. This was detected from blood sampling the cows 4 to 10 weeks before calving. All positive cows were culled, and unfortunately their daughters could not be bred either as they were likely to be positive. Ger’s calves per cow per year dropped to 0.86 in 2022 but has increased to 0.98 again this year. He prefers to breed his own replacement heifers and calve them at 24 months of age, but due to the neospora outbreak he has bought in replacement heifers over the last few years. This year 100% of the heifers calved at 22-26 months of age and this is reducing the farm’s carbon footprint by 12% than if they calved at 36 months of age.

Ger aims to breed replacement heifers that are milky, docile and fertile, but that are also balanced for carcass weight and from a good mother. Some of the replacement AI bulls that he uses to achieve this are Curaheen Gunshot (SI4147) and Grenache (LM4351). The rest of the cows are bred to more terminal sires such as Pottlereagh Mark (CH4160). Each bull is matched to the cow, and calving difficulty figures are usually less than 8% at over 70% reliability for the cows and less than 6% calving difficulty for the heifers. Ger uses an automated heat detection and health monitoring system, Sensehub, which he finds hugely beneficial during the breeding system as it sends text alerts to his phone when cows and heifers are in heat.

This year’s 200 day weights shows that the bulls achieved 1.4kg/day and the heifers have gained 1.2kg/day since birth, which is mainly attributed to milk production from their cows.

Utilising More Grass

According to Ger, “grass is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly feed available on the farm” and his aim is to maximise it in his system as much as possible. This helps to reduce his housing costs, nitrogen fertiliser and means that he does not have to buy in silage. To feed all stock on the farm, Ger needs to grow 10.8 t DM/ha (excluding any ration) and this requires 115 units nitrogen/acre on his farm. He utilises more grass by;

1. Having the correct paddock size
2. Good infrastructure

Cattle spend 1.5 days per paddock, on average, on the farm. This means that they can be moved on quicker and grass re-growths are not affected by grazing.

For 38 cows and calves, a minimum trough size of 75 gallons is required and Ger aims to have 90 gallon troughs in all paddocks. He uses reels and temporary fencing to strip graze and subdivide paddocks to make maximum use of grass. As the farm is split by a main road, he has also installed a gateway that allows cattle to cross safely with one person.

1. Excellent grass management
2. Soil fertility

Replacement heifers start grazing in late January/early February when weather conditions allow. As the farm is over 900ft above sea level, Ger must be flexible and is willing to re-house them if necessary. The herd stays at grass until November and Ger uses a spring and autumn closing planner to help manage grass. He measures grass weekly to match grass growth to demand so that paddocks are grazed at 3 fistfuls of grass (1400 kg DM/ha) and surplus grass is cut for silage.

Soil fertility is quite good on the farm with 26% optimal for soil pH, P index and K index. Ger takes soil samples every 4 years and uses the results from his nutrient management plan. He mainly spreads 18-6-12 and protected urea now, and is mindful of his fertiliser limits. More lime is required on lower pH soils, some of which will be spread this autumn. Sulphur is also spread on grazing ground and at 15 units/silage cut.

As the soil fertility is so good on the farm, Ger is able to start over sowing white clover on the farm. He spread this with a fertiliser shaker at 2kg/acre while cattle were grazing and allowed them to walk it into the ground. It struck well and he plans to do more in the future with small leaf varieties to reduce the risk of bloat when grazing.

Future Plans

Ger joined the ACRES scheme in 2022 and selected a number of actions to improve biodiversity on the farm. This includes planting 360m of new hedgerow which will act as a buffer near a watercourse and will also provide shelter to his cattle; installing 2 barn owl boxes and putting in 724m of riparian buffer strips to protect water quality. Two new cats have also joined the farm to help reduce the need for rodenticides.

Reducing the farm’s carbon footprint (CF) is important to Ger to ensure that the farm is environmentally sustainable in the future. While some actions require an initial investment, they will also generate more profit for the farm over time. Some of these actions include;

1. Extending the grazing season by 2 weeks (2% reduction in CF)
2. Reducing ration use with silage DMD >72% by cutting earlier and reseeding silage ground
3. Reducing fertiliser use by 20% (1.6% reduction in CF) by increasing white clover content and improving soil fertility
4. Targeted spreading of slurry by LESS in spring (2.7% reduction in CF)
5. Spreading straight N as pro. urea vs. CAN (6% reduction in CF)
6. Continuing to calve heifers at 24 months vs. 36 months (12% reduction in CF)
7. Improving herd health to improve performance by vaccinating against respiratory disease and culling for neospora
8. Increasing carcass weight while maintaining low age at slaughter

Ger is participating in the Future Beef Programme and further information is available here

You can find more information from Ger’s recent farm walk here