Based just outside of Borrisokane in Co. Tipperary, the Moran family farm is running a broad range of farm enterprises.
Agriland recently paid a visit to the farm to meet Eoin and Padraig Moran.
The Moran family farm is involved in a range of farm enterprises, including sucklers, beef, sheep and tillage and are also contract-rearing dairy heifers.
Eoin also has a contracting business supplying services, including liquid fertiliser applications to farmers in the surrounding region.
Eoin’s father Padraig is also heavily involved in the running of the farm and takes groups of tourists to the farm.
Coorevin Farm Tours is vey popular with groups of tourists wishing to learn more about the workings of the different enterprises on the farm.
The farm encompasses approximately 300ac of both owned and rented land and is split in three separate blocks.
Suckler beef in Borrisokane
There are 70 suckler cows on the farm, most of which have already calved. There were previously 90 suckler cows kept and the Morans are hoping to return to this number of cows over the medium term.
The suckler herd is 100% spring calving and the cow breeds are primarily Limousin-cross with some Aubrac, Simmental and Hereford-cross cows as well.
Cows are bred using a stock bull. There are two Charolais stock bulls and a Limousin stock bull on the farm.
The Morans also buy in a number of cattle every year to fatten for beef.
Replacement heifers are sourced both from the progeny born on the farm and are also bought in. A number of in-calf heifers were bought in last year from a suckler farm in Tullamore.
As of March 12, the suckler herd was still housed. Generally cows and calves would be out to grass by now but this spring has been wetter than usual.
Cows are vaccinated for Leptospirosis going out to grass and for Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) in the autumn. Cows are also vaccinated with Rotavec ahead of calving.
Calves are vaccinated for pneumonia and are also given a clostridial vaccine in the spring.
When going to grass, cows and calves are split in groups with cows with bull calves in one group and cows with heifer calves in the another group. Cull cows and their calves are then kept in a separate group.
Cull cows are fed from July onwards and are generally fit before they are housed for the winter.
“We try to keep calving to two months, It used to run on longer but we take out the bulls now,” Eoin explained.
Calves are generally weaned in October and last year, bull calves went back out to graze kale while heifers remained housed.
Male progeny from the suckler herd are finished as under-16-month bull beef and heifers are generally all finished under-24-months-of-age. All cattle are finished on farm and are sold to ABP Nenagh.
The Morans are also involved in the Advantage Beef Programme and receive a 20c/kg sustainability bonus for all their eligible cattle.
The Moran family farm is also one of the eight Monitor Farms recently announced by ABP.
Commenting on the Advantage Beef Programme, Eoin said: “It’s sort of a fool-proof scheme, it’s very straightforward, it works very well for our system and it’s a nice price bonus too.”
The aim is to produce beef heifers with an average carcass weight of 350kg. Heifer grades generally are Rs and Us with the occasional E grade heifer produced.
“We aim for a fat score of three or above but some of the real good U-grade heifers can be hard to get a fat score above a 2.”
A sample of the beef cattle on the farm:
The under-16-month bulls generally have an average carcass weight slightly above the 400kg mark.
The crops grown on the farm include, grain and beet and Eoin said the farm is planning on growing maize for the first time this year.
The flock of 200 ewes lamb in January and early February. The first lambs are generally drafted in late April and the remaining lambs are drafted as they come fit from then on.
The breed of ewe on the farm is predominantly a Suffolk/Cheviot cross ewe and both Charolais and Texel rams are used.
The Moran family farm is also contract rearing heifers for dairy farmers.
Eoin said: “We are rearing heifers for two dairy farmers on the two separate out farms. The heifers arrive here as calves weaned off milk and and they return to their dairy farms as in-calf heifers. It just suits the system on this farm.”
Liquid fertiliser and contracting
Eoin also has an agri-contracting business and spraying forms a major part of this enterprise.
He owns a self-propelled sprayer which he does a lot of work with during the growing season.
“I do liquid fertiliser as well as weed and crop spraying. I also do reseeding, so the sprayer comes in handy for that.
He says the self-propelled sprayer is more manoeuvrable in fields and allows him to cover more area in a day.
He has a set of wide wheels for the sprayer which can be used on softer ground and also has row crop wheels for spraying from tramlines in tillage fields.
“About 70-80% of my customers for liquid fertiliser would be looking for it applied on grassland.”
He explained that the fertiliser is available in a range of different compositions.
“It’s basically liquid CAN. We do SulfaCan which is 24% nitrogen (N) and 7.5% sulphur and then there’s small P and K, so there’s a 15:1.5:6 and there’s a 16:0:8.
“The 16:0:8 suits farms not allowed to spread phosphorus (P) so in the summer they can spread their potassium (K) on the grazing ground. I do weekly rotations for farmers so every week, I’d do a third of the farm for them.”
Commenting on their plans for the future, the Moran family farm hopes to continue all of their current enterprises and grow the suckler herd back to the 90 cow level.