In this instalment of the ‘Farm Smart Series’ – an initiative brought to you by AgriLand and Herdwatch – we visit Tom Groome, who runs a herd of suckler cows under an autumn-calving system in Rhode, Co. Offaly.
Not only that, but Tom also works as an AI technician with a well-known company, Dovea Genetics.
Taking up the position in October 2009, Tom has become busier and busier as the years progressed – especially since the unshackling of milk quotas in 2015. Saying that, Tom’s client base also stretches into the beef side of the house.
“I would have a lot more beef customers than dairy men, but dairy does huge numbers. It’s very busy from April 10 right up to the first week in July. After that, it starts to taper off,” Tom explained.
The farm stretches across 14ac of owned land and 87ac of leased ground, which is located close to the home block.
Tom operates a suckler-to-weanling enterprise – selling all bulls – while a proportion of the heifer weanlings are kept on-farm as replacements; surplus heifers are sold for breeding.
Additionally, first-cross Belgian Blue heifers from the dairy herd (British Friesian cows) are also purchased off-farm to run alongside his own replacements. These heifers are used to replace the eight-to-10 cows that are culled each year.
“The blues [Belgian Blue] off the Friesian cows have lots of milk and they breed great stock. I also have some Simmentals here and they are good ‘milky’ cows; that’s the way I like them.
“If you don’t have milk, you won’t have good calves; they won’t weigh,” he added.
Calving cows in the autumn months works well with the part-time AI job, as that time of year would generally be that little bit quieter from an AI perspective.
Over the past five years, Tom has invested in his grassland by implementing a reseeding programme on his own land and on a proportion of the leased ground.
Also, to make his life easier, Tom has moved away from harvesting silage as bales, and a silage pit was constructed in 2017.
“It worked out brilliantly. The lads come in here and cut the silage and – last year – I was that busy at AI that I wasn’t even here, so they covered the pit for me,” Tom said.
While also making some infrastructural changes around the farmyard, the Offaly native has also moved more towards technology to make the day-to-day running of the farm more streamlined.
After hearing about the Herdwatch App, a quick phone-call to the customer care team ended with a one-month free trial; Tom joined up immediately.
Equipped with Herdwatch technology, the first task that Tom set about doing was registering calves.
“It was very handy,” Tom notes. “I could be down in the shed calving a cow and I would have the calf registered before I got back up to the house. So, it’s absolutely brilliant and you would have a calf registered in less than 30 seconds.
“You get the ‘blue card’ two or three days later in the post and that’s that job done and dusted,” the Offaly-based farmer highlighted.
“It was always paperwork and more paperwork…and between going to the Post Office and envelopes and stamps and writing – it took an hour hopping and trotting – but now I can do it in 30 seconds.”
As mentioned above, Tom sells the majority of his weanlings off the farm – with the exception of the replacement heifers. Again, Herdwatch simplifies this entire process.
“You can move an animal from one herd to another in a matter of minutes,” he says.
All medicines needed on the farm are also recorded using the Herdwatch App. By simply scanning the barcode on the bottle, all the information is stored and will be available for a Bord Bia farm inspection.
Also, Tom said: “If I use 50ml out of a 100ml bottle, it will tell me on the app that I have 50ml left to use. So, from that point of view you can’t go wrong; it’s twice as fast as paperwork.
“When the man or woman arrives to carry out the inspection, I hand over the phone. There is an untold amount of information there so they can’t complain,” he added.
Tom also uses Herdwatch during the breeding season. After AI-ing a cow, all the information is linked through the ICBF database and the Herdwatch App.
“On day 20 after AI, the app will notify me to keep an eye out for repeats. From that point of view alone, it’s absolutely brilliant.”
Herdwatch technology also attracted some international interest on Tom’s farm. In February 2019, Bord Bia hosted an American research group on the Offaly-based holding.
“The night before the visit, a cow calved at 4:00am and I registered it sitting at the table with the American group the following morning. One lady couldn’t believe how the app worked; she was very impressed,” he concluded.