A beef open day is set to take place on the farm of Brian Doran in Carnew, Co. Wicklow on Tuesday, January 14, starting at 11:00a.m.
The suckler and dairy calf to beef farm has been profiled in the past and last summer, featured on Agriland as part of the ABP Food Group Advantage Beef Programme Series.
The farm walk will take place in conjunction with Teagasc, as well as ABP and Grassland Agro.
There will be a range of topics discussed on the day including animal health and nutrition, nutrient management, GPS fertiliser spreading and Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) and the grants available as well as the ABP Food Group Advantage Beef Programme sustainability initiative, which offers all participants a 20c/kg sustainability bonus on beef cattle for meeting the scheme’s eligibility criteria.
The Advantage Beef Programme’s farm liaison team leader Amie Coonan and host farmer, Brian Doran, will discuss the requirements of the processor sustainability initiative and what it involves.
The open day will feature information on the use of GPS guided fertiliser spreading and LESS equipment with details available on the cost of this equipment and the grants involved and the grants available to farmers under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
Sophie Tyner from Grassland Agro will deliver a presentation titled: ‘Nutrient planning for 2025: Fertiliser and slurry/farm yard manure (FYM) applications.
Teagasc advisors will be present on the day to discuss animal nutrition and health with a focus on diet feeding for different groups of cattle. Refreshments will be served at the open day.
Suckler and beef farm open day
The suckler herd calves in the spring and the host farmer has a major focus on a compact calving season.
Breeding is carried out by way of a Charolais and Limousin stock bull and replacement heifers are purchased in, generally as in-calf heifers.
Progeny from the suckler herd is generally all finished as beef, with the exception of a few stylish heifers that are shown at a special breeding heifer sale at Tullow Mart.
The cows are predominantly all continental bred with a focus on a cow that has good fertility and milk but will also produce a good weanling every year.
Calving generally kicks off in late January with the aim of being wrapped up by March.
Speaking to Agriland last summer, Brian Doran said: “I work on a 12-week calving season but I try to have 90% of the cows calved in 10 weeks. The bulls come out from the cows after three months of breeding and that’s it.
“Anything not in calf after that is culled, young or old it doesn’t matter because I am gone off working at tillage in the spring and I don’t have time to be waiting on one or two cows to be calving.”
As well as the suckler enterprise, the farm buys in approximately 30 beef-sired calves from the dairy herd every year and finishes these as steers at under 24 months of age.