Green champions reaping big rewards
NEVILLE Myles was just sitting down to dinner with his family in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal when he got word that his farm was considered one of the best in the country.
“I nearly fell out of the chair, it was a complete shock. I just do what I do everyday - not for a minute did I think I’m up there with the best farmers in the country. But if what I’m doing is best practice, then so be it,” he told the Farming Independent.
Mr Myles, and seven other farmers from across the country, were crowned winners at the first ever Bord Bia Origin Green Sustainable Producer Awards last weekend.
The awards recognise exceptional performance achieved by farmers in its Quality Assurance programmes for beef and dairy.
Selected from a pool of nearly 60,000 farms participating on beef and dairy schemes, each met high standards regarding food safety, animal health, welfare and traceability.
Over the last few weeks, Bord Bia and Teagasc judges visited 28 finalists who impressed them with the practices they’ve adopted to raise efficiency and profitability. These include measures to improve animal performance, herd health and fertility, while controlling inputs such as concentrate feed and fertiliser.
Lowering a farm’s carbon footprint through efficiency gains reduces production costs and improves profitability.
A Teagasc survey this week revealed that 40pc of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions continues to be linked with red meat in the Irish diet.
The Myles family are farming approximately 50ha of grassland in several divisions, along with some contracting work. Their 68 cow suckler herd is split between spring and autumn calving and a flock of 100 breeding ewes is also kept.
Cows are a mixture of continental crosses, with Limousin the most popular, followed by Simmental, Charolais and Belgian Blue. This year, calving rate averaged 0.95 calves per cow.
Neville has a keen interest in breeding, using mostly artificial insemination, followed by a Limousin stock bull. “It’s only a small farm, mostly rented, but farming is in our blood. We’re at it for the love, not to make a fortune,” he said.
He says tightening up their calving pattern in recent years has been key.
“We’ve tightened up big time. We used to be calving nearly all year round but we’ve upped the quality of our stock and cattle we keep. Most of the bulls are specialised finishers. They would be going off at 500kg at 11 or 12 months of age,” he said.
The land is divided into paddocks, and sward quality is also maintained with sheep, baled silage and strategic reseeding. Slurry is well utilised in spring and early summer.
“My Teagasc consultant has told me that I’m keeping my whole single farm payment, that I’m not spending any of it.
“We are farming without premiums which isn’t an easy job but we’re getting top dollar for our calves. For example, I’d four calves, average 510kg, that went away yesterday at €1,250 each”.
“Best practice is paying off for me. Using AI bulls provides great breeding and now we’re up there with the best in the world for genetics,” he said.
Under the Origin Green programme, Ireland is the first country in the world to audit and carbon footprint its farms.