Ken Gill May/June Update 2026

Animal Nutrition

Ken bought in 10 bales of organic silage at €50/bale. It was 88% DMD at 9% crude protein and he restrict-fed it to the cows with straw.

He also bought 1t organic ration (€770/t) which was fed to the cows at 2kg with straw to stretch feed.

Ken has completed a fodder budget for the farm. He will have 63 cows, 63 calves and 59 store cattle next winter that won’t receive any ration. He budgets for a 6 month winter, and this include 4ha of kale for the store cattle. He will require a full pit of grass silage, 350 bales, 100 pea/wheat bales and 240 bales of red clover to meet this demand. He ran out of silage in winter 2025 due to a poorer first cut and no turnips, rape and kale available for grazing so stores were housed a month earlier than usual.

This year the silage ground was grazed early, received 2500 gallons of slurry by LESS/acre and was closed early for cutting in mid to late May. The red clover silage will be cut first, followed by the grass silage 2 weeks later. There are 48.5 acres closed for silage at present.

Figure 1: Red clover silage which will be cut this week

Performance

Three cows were sold to the factory on 8^th April. One of these had horns and the other 2 were not AI bred so could not go to Tully. They averaged 310kg carcass weight and graded O=3=. 8 cows were sold live to Tully on 3^rd April.

The 2025 born bullocks (34) were weighed on 25^th March. They averaged 264kg and had gained 1.01 kg/day since birth. The 2025 heifers (28) were weighed on the same day and averaged 252kg, after gaining 0.98 kg/day since birth. They are 0.11 kg/day and 0.12 kg/day respectively ahead of their 2024 counterparts at the same age.

The 2024 bullocks (31) were also weighed on 25^th March and averaged 513kg, gaining 0.43 kg/day since 26^th November. The 2024 born heifers (29) averaged 452kg on the same day and gained 0.33 kg/day during the same period.

Figure 2: Some of the 2024 born bullocks that will be finished from grass this summer

The spring 2024 born bullocks (2) averaged 545kg and the heifers (2) averaged 491kg and were sold to the factory on 17^th April.

The bullocks (3) averaged  283kg carcass weight and graded O+2- at 25.8 months. The heifers (4) averaged 281kg and graded O+3= at 27 months. They were the last remaining offspring from the scrub bull that unexpectedly put the extra heifers in calf so Ken is very happy to have them sold and have his system back to normal.

Water Quality

Ken is working on completing his actions for the Farming for Water EIP. He was approved for the following measures to help improve water quality on his farm:

• Rainwater management plan
• Farmer training course
• Nutrient management plan
• Catch/cover crops
• Small scale wetland pond
• Farmyard settlement tank
• Bovine exclusion from water bodies
• Solar powered electric fencer
• Vegetated bunded drains
• Host farmer payment
• Contractor mobilisation fee
• Farmyard bucket & brush
• Slurry testing

He recently took the opportunity to get some digger work done for it. The vegetated bunded drains help maximise the retention of sediments and nutrients, while also creating opportunities for water infiltration into the soil. The existing drain was widened slightly and deepened to help slow the water flow, enhancing sediment deposition and promoting plant uptake of nutrients within the ditch or drain.

Figure 3: Bunded drain to help maximise the retention of sediments and nutrients

Ken also made changes to the small scale wetland pond by rising the area where the water flows out to keep more in it. This will be a particular help in summer when it can dry out if water levels are too low. He also installed a pipe so that it would not flood the other surrounding areas.

Figure 4: Small scale wetland pond

Another investment that Ken made was for the farmyard bucket and brush which can be used to keep the farmyard clean. He used it to clean the silage pit before cutting silage and was very happy with the result, which also saved him work from power washing it.