Green Acres calf-to-beef programme participant, Peter O’Hanrahan, from Co.Kilkenny discusses how he is managing costs on his farm this year on the latest Beef Edge podcast.

Peter farms with his father Thomas outside Thomastown and he explains how the 220 purchased calves at 2-3 weeks of age have received good colostrum and a vaccination programme that is so important to weaning calves at 90kg.

The 220 calves comprise of Aberdeen angus X, Friesian X and Hereford X and are finished as steers at 24 months of age with a carcass of 320kg.

They have carried out reseeding in recent years and Peter outlines how he incorporated clover into non reseeded swards. He targets grazing these covers at less than 1,000kg DM/ha.

This year’s first-cut crop of silage was fertilised with 3,000 gallons/ac of slurry and 80units/ac of artificial nitrogen. Last year silage tested 74DMD on the farm which resulted in finishing stock only receiving 5kg of concentrates per head to day.

This year Peter will weigh the steers and draft the heaviest 70 and supplement them at grass to finish before housing to reduce costs.

For further information go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2022/Todays-Farm---May-June-2022.pdf

For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, visit the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge

Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com