Developing the farm business in Co Monaghan
Ciaran Lynch, Sheep Specialist, and Conal Murnaghan, Drystock Advisor, discuss Darragh Cassidy's efforts to improve his mixed sheep and beef farm, including investments in infrastructure, reseeding, and starting a direct meat sales business.
Darragh Cassidy joined the Teagasc BETTER farm sheep programme this spring. Currently he is running a mixed sheep and beef farm near Carrickroe in Co Monaghan alongside his family. Darragh works in a contracting business off farm and in the past year he has also started a direct meat sales business based on selling home reared stock.
The farm itself consists of 30 ha and is fragmented in a near 50:50 split between owned and rented. The home farm is heavier land type and is mainly used for grazing sheep and calves, with the rented drier type ground used for grazing the yearling and finishing cattle. Darragh has made significant investments in fencing, drainage and reseeding on the home block in recent years to make better use of this grazing block. This summer a further 3 Ha (8 acre) section on the home farm was reseeded. This was on the cards for reseeding earlier in the season but with the challenging spring it got pushed back to June before finally getting sown with the required lime and fertilizer application. Darragh used a mix which contained high performing Pasture Profit Index (PPI) varieties Nashota and Bowie along with 0.75 kg of clover.
The reseed received a clover safe post emergence spray in late July to check any issues with redshank and docks before grazing in August with finishing lambs. Darragh split this into three sections using temporary fencing to achieve better graze outs and to protect regrowth. Following grazing it has received a further 24 units of Nitrogen per acre along with P & K in the form of 18:6:12 fertilizer and is now ready for its second grazing with the potential of a light third graze this season depending on weather conditions. This should set these fields up for next spring with well-established sward to boost grass supplies. The remaining grazing area on the farm received its final round of fertilizer in the form of 30 units of protected urea in late August. Overall grass supply on the farm is well on target with 32 days grazing ahead in mid-September.
On the grazing front all ewes have been given access to better grazing in recent weeks aiming for pre grazing covers of 1500 to 2000 kg/DM/ha or 8 to 10 cm in order to allow them to build condition. The sheep enterprise on the farm consists of a 120 ewe mid-season lambing flock mainly made up of Texel, Suffolk and Llyen cross ewes. The aim over the coming seasons is to close the flock and produce all his own replacements and increase ewe output. Ensuring ewes are in the correct body condition at mating time will be a key area to address. All ewes in the flock were condition scored in mid-August and like many flocks, this year has taken its toll on stock. On average, the ewes had a body condition score of 2.9 with 50% of the ewes below a condition score of 3 below the target for mating of 3.5 at mating time. With a 7 to 8 week interval from this check to ram turnout an increase of over 0.5 units in condition score is feasible with good management.
One of these key steps Darragh has tackled to help ewes body condition score is treating lame ewes, these presented with mainly cases of scald and footrot but also a few cases of CODD. These lame ewes were separated from the main batch. Firstly, this reduced the burden on the other ewes and secondly it facilitated repeated foot bathing and any necessary antibiotic treatments as directed by his vet. These ewes were only reintroduced to the main flocks when they are fully cleared up and displayed no signs of lameness.
The lambs on the farm are being drafted regularly in recent weeks. The majority are sold through the Monaghan lamb producer group with some of the factory fit ewe lambs also being used to supply the direct sales business. Darragh took the option of selling the lightest 26 lambs as stores in September to reduce demand on the farm for the coming weeks. This leaves him with 50 male lambs that are being finished with supplementation and a batch of 26 ewe lambs that are all 40kg plus also being supplemented. Lighter ewe lambs will be grazed on later in to the season to supply the direct sales side of the business.
The cattle enterprise has been carrying 60 to 70 head annually is mainly comprised of dairy calf to beef with calves coming on the farm to be reared each spring and carried through to finish or sold as forward stores. This is usually topped up with 10 to 15 suckler bred store heifers purchased in the autumn. In previous years the calves were a bull/heifer calf split but Darragh has moved to all female calves to suit his finishing system with 25 mainly angus cross calves reared this spring. Traditionally the finished cattle were sent to the factory in the spring at 22 to 28 month but the majority will now be used to supply the direct sales business. This will have implications on the finishing period and the type of stock purchased to meet the more consistent demand.
Always keen to push on, Darragh entered into the direct sales business this year. This was an avenue he had wanted to pursue for some time to provide an additional revenue stream and an added value outlet for stock finished on the farm. He purchased a custom made trailer and refrigerated van unit earlier this year and once all the necessary certification processes were in place he had his first day’s sales this July trading as Long acre farm meats. All stock are slaughtered and prepared in a Dept. Of Agriculture approved facility. The carcasses are hung and aged for 30 days before butchering. Currently demand requires one side of beef and a lamb carcass per week something Darragh hopes to grow over the coming months as he builds his business.
This article was first published in the Farming Independent
Find out more about the Teagasc BETTER Farm Sheep Programme here