Tommy Holmes

Location: Ballina, Co. Mayo

Farm Size: 18ha-mostly free draining

System: Suckler to finish

Details:

The farm is very fragmented. Currently, Tommy is stocked at 1.9lu/ha. He has a very good grasp of grassland management and has really bought into reseeding.

The calving pattern is a problem on the farm as he had an issue with a bull two years ago. Small herd of 20 cows and purchases an additional 15 weanling bulls every spring.

The plan is to go to 25 cows on the home block and finish 40 bulls each year-pushing them hard both indoors and at grass. 

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

• Breeding challenge – Increase average replacement value of herd by €20 over course of programme and meet all herd fertility targets
• Soil fertility challenge -Aim for 70% of farm at index 3 P&K. Ph – aim for 6.1 (5.7 on peat soils)
• Green farming challenge – incorporate clover into 20% of swards
• Meet the markets challenge – All farms quality assured. All stock to meet processor specifications.

Read more on the challenges

Updates

Open Day Booklets

• BETTER farm walk – Holmes – September 2019

IFJ Articles

• (PDF)
• (PDF)

Teagasc Newsletters

• November 2017