Calf to beef enterprise

A calf vaccination programme is vital in these systems and Conor outlined on the day that he will implement a two shot Bovipast RSP programme to protect against viral and bacterial pneumonia. He will also vaccination against IBR, 24 hours after arrival of calf on to the farm.

Clostridial diseases are also covered using a two shot programme.

Paddocks

Conor could not emphasis enough the importance of putting in a paddock system on his farm. Due to the paddocks, his farm is now growing a lot more quality grass. Grass is grazed now at the correct time when it is nice and leafy and of high quality. The management of fields has become a lot easier as surplus grass can be taken out and be saved as high quality baled silage. Conor can now get a large percentage of his weight gain coming from grazed grass and this will help with reducing the meal bill for the finishing phase.

Grass is the greatest resource on all farms and the more weight gain that can be achieved from grazed grass the more profitable a calf to beef system can become.

Soil fertility

The foundation of any farm is the soil fertility. The three main drivers of grass production are pH, phosphorus and potassium levels in the soil.

On over 90pc of soils test- ed in Ireland at least one or more of the three elements mentioned above are deficient.

Having soil tested all of Conor`s farm in 2015 it was identified that over 50% was below the target for phosphorus, 30% for potassium and all the fields required some lime, ranging from half a ton to four tonnes per acre.

Conor has started correcting the pH issue first by applying two tonnes of lime per acre to the fields most deficient. Any field requiring greater than two tonnes per acre will have lime re applied again in two years’ time.

Phosphorus and Potassium will be corrected by targeting low level fields with slurry and topping them up with 18/6/12 instead of CAN.