IGA’S free beef farm walk at Crookedwood
The Irish Grassland Association are holding a free beef farm walk on the farm of Chris and Philomena McCarthy at Crookedwood (N91 FX22) on the evening of Tuesday June 13.
After assembly and refreshments at 6.30pm, the opening address is at 7pm, and then the farm walk starts.
Topics to be covered: farm introduction; animal and financial performance; grassland management; animal health; and profitable and sustainable beef production. The speakers are: Eoin Ryan and Aidan Murray, Teagasc, as well as the host farmer, Chris McCarthy.
McCarthy farm
The McCarthy farm is made up of 27ha of relatively free-draining soil in one block. The farm is home to a spring-calving herd comprising 46 Limousin cows mated primarily to terminal Charolais stock bulls.
Alongside the commercial herd, Chris runs a small number of pedigree Charolais cows to provide stock bulls for his own use; he also sells a number of breeding stock each year. The current stock bull is a Doonally New (CF52) bred bull and Chris also highly rates other Charolais stalwarts such as Pirate (PTE).
When he combines these terminal genetics with his three-quarter bred, red Limousin cow, the results speak for themselves and outstanding quality suckler stock have been consistently bred on the farm over a number of years.
Historically, replacements were purchased as in-calf heifers from one or two sources, but Chris found that they were getting more and more expensive and he has moved to bringing in maiden heifers over the last two years.
The farm is quite heavily stocked and in the past Chris has been in derogation, but now operates just below 170kgN/ha each year. This high stocking rate helps to drive the output/ha, ultimately driving the profitability of the farm.
Calving starts the first week of February and is typically finished by St Patrick’s Day. In 2021, an issue with a sub-fertile bull resulted in the calving spread increasing slightly over the last two years but it is something that Chris is working on pulling back quite quickly.
Cows and calves start to be turned out to grass in small numbers as soon as the weather conditions allow, typically around February 15-20 (around March 10 is the mean date for turnout).
The grazing infrastructure on the farm is simple but effective. Chris can move a batch of stock single-handedly anywhere on the farm. He says stock are used to getting a move to fresh grass and so he can lead them to new grass when they need a move.
Good genetics combined with excellent grassland management are keys to high growth rates in calves over the first season at grass. Chris was measuring grass in the past when he was a member of the Teagasc/ Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm programme, but has moved away from it in recent years.
The system is simple, but effective. Being busy off farm means that every hour on the farm needs to be productive. Chris estimates he spends around 15 hours per week on the farm. The biggest workload is in winter and during the calving season but Chris is slow to handle cows at calving if they don’t need it.
One change implemented is the move from a weanling trading system to an under 16-month bull beef operation. At weaning, in late September, bull calves are typically 350kg to 360kg. They are fed meal two weeks pre- and for four weeks post-weaning and once housed in November, they start on 2kg of ration which increases to 4kg by the new year. This moves to 6kg by February 1 and ad lib by March 1.
There has been an increased focus on silage quality on the farm and Chris sees it as a key way to reduce the total amount of meal fed to bulls. Currently, they are consuming around 1.8t/head lifetime of concentrate. These bulls are achieving big weights at under 16 months at average carcase weights of around 460kg. These animals are going on the grid and are typically grading U+ for conformation and 2+ on average for carcase fat score.
Chris is working closely with his processor to ensure the market is there for this type of stock each year.