The Irish Farmer’s Journal held their national Beef and Sheep Open Day on the Tullamore demonstration farm last Tuesday 26th of July. The 80-cow suckler herd and 20- ewe flock were on display. All aspects of the farm’s physical and financial performance were presented and discussed with over 2,500 visitors on the day.
Chris Daly, ICBF along with Declan Marren, IFJ highlighted the farm’s genetics and breeding performance with excellent engagement from the crowd.
The production system on Tullamore Farm is very much underpinned by the performance of its cows. The herd has a Replacement Index of €133 which is in the top 5% nationally. The herd consists of a lot of first and second beef x dairy cows which gives it a very high daughter milk PTA of +9.2kg. The carcass weight (+13kg) and calving interval (-0.64 days) are both close to the national average and could be improved.
Improvements are being achieved by correct sire selection. There were 12 different AI sires used in 2022. 8 high Replacement Index sires with strong carcass and fertility traits and 4 high Terminal Index sires which were used on cows later in the breeding season.
Members of the HerdPlus team were available to meet farmers and answer any queries in the trade stand area of the farmyard.
Many of the those in attendance commented on the farm’s impressive financial performance of nearly €80,000 net margin, if own labour and an average BPS payment were assumed.
A lot farmers we spoke to on the day were positive about the future of drystock farming, although with some concern over increasing environmental demands. We enjoyed meeting our HerdPlus customers and we look forward to meeting more at upcoming events.