Jamie O’Dea farms part time with his father in Cashel, Portlaoise, Co. Laois. Managing their beef farm in an efficient way, while maintaining a busy full-time job, is a top priority for Jamie.
Having purchased 3ac of land early last year, to add to their existing 54ac farm, Jamie and his father set about putting a good infrastructure in place to enable them to operate the land in a productive manner.
“When you’re part-time farming we can’t be there all day; so for us, time is money. I knew I needed a proper fencing structure in place that would reduce the amount of time we needed to spend travelling the land.”
In addition to this, as with all of the O’Deas land, this 3ac grassland block is primarily peaty, heavy ground; meaning avoiding compaction of the land is vital.
Originally a 6ac block of land, Jamie and his father set about fencing the land to a 3ac site. They wanted a fencing option that would give them longevity and durability.
Commenting on this, Jamie said: “The biggest thing for us amongst all else is peace of mind.
“I have no fear of animals breaking out, I know I’ll get longevity from the posts, and I also know I’m not going to have to travel my heavy marginal land, to tip up the fences like I often have to on other paddocks we have.”
Over the course of two evenings, Jamie and his father installed the 1.8m X 106mm fences, along with 3in mild steel-barbed wire purchased from Glanbia; with the help of a rented driver post.
With animals grazing the land all last summer and into the autumn, Jamie reports being very happy with his new fencing.
“It’s a really durable job; we’ve seen animals come over and put their weight on the fence, but it holds its tension and there’s no way the staples will come out.”
In addition, Jamie noted how the treatment on the stakes means that water is not able to get up through the pin-holes and rot the wood, like he’s seen in other posts.
This spring, James and his father will be putting land that was previously used for winter barley back into grass and plan to use Balcas posts for the fencing work they will undertake.
Competition to win €600 worth of posts
Glanbia Ireland is running a competition this March and April for six lucky farmers to win €600 worth of Balcas Permaposts or Defence posts each. Defence kiln-dried treated posts are also preserved with Tanalith and carry a 15-year service life.
To enter, farmers must purchase any product from Glanbia’s fencing and turnout offers either in branch or on GlanbiaConnect.com (products marked “Fencing & Turnout”). Read the full competition terms and conditions here.
Glanbia requests that customers adhere to the strict hygiene and preventative measures when visiting branches at this time. Products are available to purchase online at: www.GlanbiaConnect.com.
If you need assistance in setting up your Glanbia Connect account to facilitate online ordering, please call: 1890-100-017.
The numbers behind investing in your grazing infrastructure
Grazing infrastructure, its layout and design, is crucial to overall herd performance – as it can allow more days at grass and hence greater profitability. One extra day at grass is worth €2.70/cow/day in spring and €1.50/cow/day in autumn.
Good grazing infrastructure will ultimately increase grass utilised on farm/ha – increasing grass utilised by 1.0t DM/ha/year is worth €181/ha to a dairy farmer and €105/ha to a dry-stock farmer.
According to 2018 Teagasc eProfit monitor results, grass utilised explains 44% of the variation in net profit per hectare and each additional tonne of grass utilised per hectare was associated with an increase in profit of €256
The following steps should be taken when designing a paddock:
- Determine the most suitable road layout to service each paddock;
- Determine most appropriate water trough(s) position in each paddock. Central trough placement will allow for strip grazing / back-fencing / allocation grazing;
- Allow for multiple entrances into each paddock. This will reduce excessive damage at entrance points, re-walking over / damaging re-growths. Multiple access points can also aid in cows ‘self-locking’ into paddocks during the main grazing season;
- Ideally, paddocks should be as square as possible / rectangular – target depth: width ratio should be 2:1. Long narrow paddocks – too much walking over ground to graze the end of the paddocks can result in excessive risk of poaching;
- Paddock size will be dependent on herd size. With large paddocks, grass regrowth’s will be stunted/overgrazed if over 3-4 grazings per paddock. With small paddocks, there may be insufficient grass for one grazing, extra water troughs are required and cows may go under-fed.
Calculate paddock size (April–June):
- Step 1: Establish cow numbers;
- Step 2: Establish daily demand – e.g. 100 cows x 18kg DM = 1,800kg DM for 24 hours;
- Step 3: Ideal pre-grazing yield is 1,400kg DM/ha in mid-season;
- Step 4: Two grazing 1,800/1,400 = 1.3ha for 100 cows in 24 hours. To calculate paddock size, divide herd demand by ideal pre-grazing yield;
- Step 5: Three grazing 1,800 x 1.5 days/1,400 = 1.9ha for 100 cows in 36 hours;
- Step 6: The remaining area is typically closed for silage during this period. This could also be divided into similar paddocks thereafter and can be utilised greater with temporary wires.
