Virtual event with Caroline Walsh, Grassland Farmer of the Year
The Overall Winner of the Grassland Farmer of the Year 2020, Caroline Walsh, from Ballinascarthy, County Cork is hosting a virtual event today, Wednesday 21st April.
Caroline Walsh is taking over the Teagasc Grass10 Twitter account and the Teagasc Instagram account throughout the day, with a live interview taking place in the evening. Caroline will take us through a day in the life on her dairy farm in Ballinascarthy, County Cork. Join these online events today to gain an insight into how Caroline operates her farm to a high level of technical performance and grazing efficiency in a sustainable manner.
John Maher, Teagasc and Grass10 campaign manager said: “To achieve 10 grazings per paddock per year on Caroline’s farm is a phenomenal achievement. This enables the farm to grow and utilise high levels of excellent quality grass throughout the grazing season.”
Caroline began measuring grass in 2015. The farm has averaged 10 grazings/paddock/year over the last 2 years and grown over 15 Tonnes of grass Dry Matter per hectare. The herd of cows has an EBI of €181 and delivered 515 kg MS per cow to Lisavaird Co-op.
To view the events page with promotional video and to register to watch the interview please go to bit.ly/CarolineWalshG10
For a direct link to Caroline’s video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS8FP0uc4I8
Speaking at the online event today, John Maher, said that: “Increasing grass utilisation is one of the most important improvements that can be made on any grassland farm. We need to continue the focus of improving grass utilisation, which will increase our own feed resources inside the farm gate.”
Improved grassland management is another aspect of the improvement of farm system sustainability. Caroline’s farm performance clearly shows this. The continued improvement in the supply of home-grown grass, and the lower reliance on imported feeds is the cornerstone of successful grassland production systems. The progress of improved nitrogen-use-efficiency and further improvement on grass utilisation, and better reliance on clover to contribute higher grassland output and increase milk solids, with less Nitrogen input are key aspects of the Grass10 Phase II programme objective. There are 30 clover pilot farms recruited to this programme already this year.
The Grassland Farmer of the Year awards are part of the Teagasc Grass10 campaign which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM); Teagasc; AIB; FBD Insurance; Grassland Agro and the Irish Farmers Journal.