Beef Focus: Modern pedigree Charolais operation in Cavan

For this week’s Beef Focus, Agriland paid a visit to a pedigree Charolais herd located on the Cavan-Meath border near the shores of Lough Sheelin.

Sebana Moynagh is the owner of the Breffni Charolais Herd and she runs the 90-cow pedigree suckler operation by herself, with help from her partner from time to time.

The herd specialises in the production of pedigree Charolais bulls and heifers which are sold to customers in the surrounding region and further afield.

The yard is a sight to behold and speaking to Agriland, Sebana said that the farm has been designed to allow for as many tasks as possible to be completed by one person.

The farm features a range of interesting features and technology including a number of automatic cattle brushes, automatic scrapers, a slurry aeration system, an impressive handling unit and a state-of-the-art cubicle house with a straw-bedded lieback and an outdoor access pad for weanlings.

Once calves are strong enough, they return to the cubicle house where they have access to a straw-bedded lieback

Sebana has been farming since 1997 and her father and grandfather previously farmed there.

“My father had sucklers as well. He started the Breffni Charolais pedigree herd in 1982 when he purchased his first pedigree-registered cow,” she said.

The cow was bought from Bart Monaghan in Co. Meath and the whole herd started from that. Sebana said some of the foundation breeding still remains in the herd.

Charolais breeding

Commenting on the farm’s breeding policy, Sebana said that her policy is simple: “I’m trying to breed a cow that is fertile, easy calving and will produce and rear a quality calf with mostly grass and very little concentrates.”

Progeny are bred with both terminal and maternal traits in mind:

As Sebana primarily runs the farm on her own, she emphasised the importance of having functional cows, however she admitted her partner does help out from time to time.

“When he’s helping out, I always have lots of work for him to do,” Sebana laughed.

The farm uses 100% artificial insemination (AI) and Sebana is happy with the cows’ conception rates. Last season, the farm used 1.5 AI straws/cow across the whole herd.

“I use both terminal and replacement sires on the breeding females and it’s working well for us,” the farmer said.

“Every animal in the herd is genotyped at birth,” Sebana added.

Some of the AI sires used in the herd include:

Artois;
Orbi;
Vosgien;
Hamel;
Epernay;
Balthayock Musketeer.

“A lot of my herd would have been bred to Voimo and I get great, consistent cows from him,” Sebana added.

Cattle sales

Sebana carries out all AI herself and added that the farm produces all of its own replacement heifers.

The herd also sells a selection of breeding heifers to customers, with Sebana saying: “We sell both maiden and in-calf heifers – whatever the customer wants.”

The herd also sells bulls ranging in age from 12 months to 20 months.

Accommodation for bulls to be sold on the farm:

“Our customer base is primarily small-to medium-sized pedigree and commercial suckler herds,” Sebana explained.

“Most of our customers are located in the Cavan, Monaghan and Longford regions, but we also have a few customers who come from further afield.

“I have sold a good few Charolais bulls on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF’s) stockbull finder. It’s a great way of selling bulls because the customer can see all the figures and stars.”

“There’s always a selection of nice four- and five-star bulls available for sale here and they’re not overfed.”

Bulls are fed approximately 3kg of meal/day in the lead up to the sale season.

Calving

Heifers calve down at 26-30 months on the farm. Sebana said: “Normally, the spring-born calves will calve in the autumn and autumn-born heifers will calve in the spring.”

Calving facilities on the farm:

As the Charolais herd has both autumn and spring-calving cows, the calving season runs from August to March.

“August is a busy month; we could calve up to 35 cows in August,” Sebana said.

August-born calves return to grass and when they come in for the winter, “they’re strong hardy calves” according to Sebana.

Before returning to the cubicle house, calves are trained to use the straw-bedded lieback in a smaller pen

Calves born over the winter are kept in a separate shed where they are trained to a creep area. They return to the cubicle house with the cow at 3-4 weeks of age, generally.

Facilities

The impressive shed has a number of interesting design features to accommodate calves, improve livestock comfort and reduce labour. There are also separate pens to house bulls over the winter.

A robotic scraper keeps the passageways clean.

“The suckler cows took a while to get used to the scraper but it works very well now and there’s no noise off it,” Sebana said.

Automatic brushes are available throughout the shed.

“The cattle really enjoy the brushes,” the farmer continued.

“It keeps them clean and I find they’re not as jumpy when I go to handle them once they have got used to the brushes.”

The calves in the cubicle shed have access to a straw-bedded lieback and an outdoor pad. Calves also have access to silage and concentrates in this area as well as their own automatic brush.

“The EasyFix cubicles in the shed work well because if there’s a cow in heat, they can often jump on them and they haven’t broke any yet,” Sebana added.

A slurry aeration system is used to keep the slurry agitated.”The tank is 105ft long so there would be no way of mixing it. That’s why we went with the aeration system,” Sebana explained.

“It’s expensive initially but it works well for us as we have very consistent slurry and any time in the open season, I can take a load of slurry from the tank and it’s ready to be spread,” she said.

The handling unit ensures safety is to the fore when handling livestock in the yard.

It restrains animals of a range of sizes and allows the operator to treat the animal securely.

Winter feed

For winter feed, the farm grows both grass and arable silage. The arable silage consists of peas and barley.

Dry cows are fed straw and grass silage and calved cows are fed arable silage and grass silage.

Cows receive a mineral bolus ahead of calving and are fed minerals at grass. A seaweed mineral is also used in the shed along with access to rock salt.

“The dried seaweed is full of iodine and our land is low in iodine so it keeps the cows right,” Sebana said.

Commenting on the arable silage, Sebana said: “There’s great feeding in it and it’s high in protein. Meal has got expensive so it is a big cost saver.”

The arable silage is sown in mid-April and left to grow for 15-16 weeks. It is cut when grains are at ‘the cheesy stage’ and put in the pit. Grass silage is placed on top of it and then the pit is covered.

“We have been cutting our own silage for the past number of years. My brother is a contractor and he caries out all the sowing work,” Sebana told Agriland.

Breffni Moynagh is the contractor who prepares the ground and sows the arable silage. “He also carries out fencing, hedge cutting, and all that type of work,” Sebana added.

Grazing

Sebana farms a total of 150ac of land located in three divisions.

Cows will go to grass shortly, where they will remain for the summer until Sebana begins closing up paddocks in October.

The land type is limestone ground and is fairly free draining. “It can get fairly dry in the summers and burn, but it’s generally good land to grow grass,” Sebana said.

Silage ground is grazed first in the spring and it then recieves an application of slurry. First-cut silage generallly takes place in late-May.

Paddocks are strip-grazed so cows are well used to the fences. “The cows are always being moved so it’s easy to get them in for AI. I just roll out an electric fence reel and I can get them in no bother,” Sebana said.