A lot going on

John McSweeney of Lissarda, Co. Cork talks about draughting, dairy-bred calves and more on his farm.

I farm 24ha of owned land, which is predominantly dry in nature and run a herd of 20 suckler cows. They calve in early spring and are run with an Angus stock bull. Bulls were slaughtered at under 16 months again this year and the average carcass weight was 381kg. All bar one graded U and they averaged €1,665 per head including bonuses. I have cut one paddock out for bales so far and aim to take out strong paddocks for bales as the year progresses, to both keep grass quality under control and ensure top-quality silage for growing stock. I have purchased 96 dairy-bred calves so far this year. These are a mix of Angus and Friesians and were sourced from local dairy farms at one week old. Some will be sold at the end of the year for cash flow purposes, while the remainder will be sold as stores, or finished off on grass in the autumn of next year. All stock will be weighed in July, including cows. This will tell me how efficient my cows are when comparing cow weight to weaning weight. I have 12 steers which I purchased recently, also at grass. The target is to slaughter these later in the year off grass.