John Dunne

Offaly

Location: Portarlington, Co. Offaly

Farm Size: 113.5ha-Free draining

System: Suckler to finish

Details:

John is a full-time suckler-to-beef farmer keeping a herd of over 100 spring calving cows. Everything is brought to beef- killing both steers and heifers under 24 months.

Given such a large holding increasing the stocking rate is going to be a serious challenge on the farm. The farm is in good fettle at present, but a substantial amount of work is required to set up a proper paddock system and correct soil fertility.

Plan is to rear over 50 Hereford x Dairy calves this year to get into stock cheaply. He hopes to rear close to 100 calves each year from 2018 onwards.

Mandatory Challenges

Two tonne grass challenge – All farms to aim to increase by 2 Tonne/DM/ha
Farm finance challenge – Gross margin target €1250/ha on average
Farm safety challenge – Farms to introduce 2 positive changes annually

Optional Challenges

Herd health challenge – Aim to reduce antibiotic input by 20% and develop herd health plan
Soil fertility challenge -Aim for 70% of farm at index 3 P&K. Ph – aim for 6.1 (5.7 on peat soils)
Meet the markets challenge – All farms quality assured. All stock to meet processor specifications.
Labour/structures challenge – Labour use focus/ Drystock farm partnership focus

Read more on the challenges

Updates

IFJ Articles

(PDF)
(PDF)