Tateetra and Rathmore Farms saves €50/ac with organic fertiliser

John Kingham is the farm manager of Ireland’s largest suckler enterprise, Tateetra and Rathmore Farms, which spans across counties Louth and Meath.

John and his team of staff took the reins of the operation in September 2017 and have grown the herd, which consists of Simmental, Limousin and Belgian Blue genetics, to over 500 head.

The 200-cow autumn-calving herd normally commences calving during the last week of September or the first week of October, while the 300-cow spring-calving herd starts calving in January.

John plans to move towards a primarily autumn-calving herd and is aiming for 80% of cows calving in the autumn and 20% calving in the spring.

Organic fertiliser

Last year, when fertiliser costs began to rise, John was concerned about the amount of money he would have to spend to achieve adequate grass growth to feed his herd.

A friend of Johns told him about Supersoil, a 100% organic fertiliser, that yields excellent results at a reduced cost. What interested John the most about Supersoil was its cost and performance.

“My first rotation of grass only cost me about €30/ac, whereas with fertiliser you could be spending about €80/ac, so you’re saving about €50/ac,” he said.

“It’s a lot of money for me to save. I was like everybody; I was sceptical about it; I didn’t know if it’d work or not.

“Sometimes in life you’ve to try things to see if it works or not and it has definitely worked, and I’ll be using it again and encouraging others to use it.

“The biggest thing in Irish agriculture is making change happen. Suckler farmers have cut back so much, soon there won’t be anything left.

“I think Supersoil will be a massive help in getting agriculture on track to reducing emissions because it means that we’ll be using a lot less chemical fertiliser than we are currently using,” he said.

Sward improvements

John has been using Supersoil organic fertiliser since the beginning of 2022 and has seen a huge physical and visual improvement in his sward.

“You have to build up the microbes in the ground. The more microbes you get in the ground, the better your soil will get and the less fertiliser you’ll need to use,” he said.

“Last year I couldn’t believe it, usually I would’ve been using three bags of chemical fertiliser across the grazing platform but last year I halved it because of Supersoil.

“I have a lot of stock to feed and we still got all the silage and fodder for the year in. I couldn’t believe it,” said John.

While Supersoil has worked wonders for John, he warns others that they need to make sure that their land is properly maintained to see its optimum benefits.

“One farmer had said to me that he applied it three weeks ago and hadn’t seen any results. I asked him about what way his land was, if he limed it, if he applied slurry,” he said,

“There’s a lot of things involved. You can’t just expect the product to go on and work miracles. There’s a lot of steps involved. You need to check your soil and give it the right attention first.

“I apply slurry along with Supersoil on the paddocks in the summer. I don’t apply slurry in January anymore but I save it for the summer months instead and I get more use out of it that way.

“I’m looking out at my fields now and my whole farm is dark green. I would’ve applied Supersoil at the end of October or start of November and my grass is really starting to grow now.

“It got nothing else only Supersoil and it’s looking very well. This time last year there would’ve been a yellow tinge in the grass but it’s really green.”

Animal performance

Since using Supersoil, John has noticed a change in his cattle’s behaviour. They’re more content when consuming the sward treated with Supersoil rather than chemical fertiliser, he said.

“My cattle are more happier on the Supersoil grass. When you’d get down to a certain point on the grass you’d hear all the cows roaring and wanting to be moved, but now they seem to be more content in the field,” the farm manager explained.