Based near Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford, is Gavin White, a suckler and sheep farmer who is also a round-bale silage contractor.
Gavin farms alongside his wife Tricia and son Paddy. The Whites are farming over 50ha, along with some additional ground that is rented for silage production.
Gavin keeps a herd of approximately 20 spring-calving suckler cows and a flock of 50 mid-season lambing ewes.
The White farm hosted a Teagasc Spring Beef Grass Walk this week, focused on managing fertiliser costs in 2022.
After the event, Agriland caught up with Gavin to find out more about his enterprise and get his views on the current situation facing agriculture with regards to soaring input costs.
Commenting on his agri-contracting business, Gavin explained: “We specialise in round baling; now you might say that’s no specialist subject, but that’s what we do.
“We sell bales; buy bales; make bales; move bales; wrap bales; and if it is anything to do with a bale, we will do it.”
As well as round baling, Gavin’s contracting business carries out slurry spreading, hedge cutting and this year, purchased a GPS spreader for contract fertiliser-spreading work on farms in the locality.
Gavin also has a bale trailer with hydraulic sides.
“We have a trailer for transporting bales with hydraulic sides on it. It can transport 24 bales at a time without the need for straps,” he said.
“The bale trailer is used nearly every day and is our means of transporting bales safely and securely without having to stop and strap or check a load during transport.”
The farm
Progeny from the suckler herd are sold as weanlings while finished lambs are sold through Longford Lamb Group.
The cow type on the farm is primarily continental-cross cows, with a few Belgian Blue-Friesian-type cows. Gavin selects cows based on docility and maternal traits.
A Limousin stock bull is used on the farm and Gavin outlined the bulls progeny “calve easily, and get up and suck themselves with minimal assistance”.
Concerns surrounding input costs
Gavin, who is also the Longford Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) chairperson, believes the soaring input costs will put further pressure on farmers.
The silage contractor asked rhetorically: “Can the part-time beef farmer, who supports the marts, the vets, the contractors like myself, as well as the many other businesses in rural Ireland stay at it?”
“At the moment, bales of silage can be bought and delivered for approximately €28/bale. With the rise in fuel and fertiliser costs, my estimate is the same bale of silage will be costing over €40 delivered next winter.”
Gavin added that if diesel prices reduce before silage season commences then “it will be a bit less”.
“Although fertiliser is expensive at the moment, it may be an awful lot cheaper than trying to buy silage that could be in short supply next winter.”
Concluding, the contractor added that if farmers can produce what they produced in 2021 “we will be doing very well”.