Danny Bermingham Virtual Farm Walk

On Thursday, 6th May, Danny Bermingham, participant in the Teagasc Heavy Soils programme hosted a virtual event from his farm through the medium of video and social media.

On Thursday, 6th May, Danny Bermingham, 2018 Disadvantaged Land Grassland Farmer of the Year and Teagasc Heavy Soils programme participant took us through a day in the life on his heavy soils dairy farm in Doonbeg, Co. Clare through the use of video and social media.

You can watch back the footage below and gain an insight into how Danny operates his farm and how he achieves such high performance from grass on a heavy soils farm. 

Farm Progress since joining the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme

Land drainage is always going to be a problem on Danny Bermingham's farm and is an ongoing process with a lot of his farm needing drainage. Danny joined the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme in 2011 with the view of improving land drainage on the farm. Find out how his farm has progressed since then in this short clip. 

Infrastructure

Since Danny Bermingham joined the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme in 2011, he's put in 1,000 metres of roadways for better access to paddocks along with 300+ metres of spur roads. He has also put in two wells and cows have no access to the river now. Watch of the other changes Danny made to his farm to improve infrastructure.

Land Drainage

Since Danny joined the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme in 2011, he has 35% of the farm drained. The drains on Danny's farm are shallow drains, 1 metre deep, 15 metres apart. The drainage system is not cheap but the benefits are massive to the farm. In this short clip, Danny tells the steps he has taken to improve land drainage on his farm.

Fertiliser Plan

In this short clip, Danny runs through his fertiliser plan for the year. Danny gets the slurry analysed every year, soil tests every year and all fertiliser applications are put into PastureBase.

Farm Yard Improvements

Since 2011, Danny Bermingham has put in a new shed with 76 cubicles, a new calving unit and calf house. Also, this spring, Danny started milking in a new milking parlour going from a 10 unit to 16 unit parlour with full drafting facilities. From a labour point of view, this has freed up Danny's time a lot more.

Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme – Lessons Learned

The Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme was set up in 2011 to develop a network of dairy farms on poorly drained soils to act as a test bed for strategies and management practices that could be implemented to improve the efficiency and performance of farms dominated by such soils, which account for 30% of grasslands nationally.

Teagasc has published a new booklet - ‘Lessons learned - key findings of the Teagasc Heavy Soils programme’. This new publication outlines the development of the participating farms over the last ten years. Check it out here 

For more information about the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme visit www.teagasc.ie/heavysoils

Or alternatively, you can contact: Patrick Tuohy or Tomas Condon