With many beef farmers balancing part-time work off the farm, this episode marks the first in our new monthly series, ‘Managing Labour on Farm’. 

Father and son, Eamon and Donnchadh McCarthy from Youghal, and participants in the Future Beef Programme, share how they successfully run their suckler-to-beef system whilst both working off-farm.

Labour efficiency on the farm is very important and like many farms, the biggest labour pinch points during the year are calving, breeding and finishing which are managed around their off farm work. 

Calving in the spring, prior to Donnchadh starting work as an AI technician, is critical and is compacted to 6 weeks. 

Previously, calving in both spring and autumn had a huge impact on labour demand with the two calving seasons and breeding periods. 

A good farm paddock system has helped bring cows back to the yard with roadways highlighted as a job for the future to make life easier. 

Investments on the farm around housing and handling facilities have made a big difference to saving time and labour particularly handling cattle during the herd test and throughout the year. 

Finishing bulls under 16 months is quite labour-intensive but most feeding is carried out with the feeder when concentrates are fed ad lib and this doesn’t need to be done daily, thus reducing labour. In the future investment in a meal store to enable the tractor and loader do most of this work is being considered.

Eamon and Donnchadh also discuss the various technologies being used on the farm to minimise labour such as SenseHub and PastureBase Ireland to measure grass. 

The fertiliser dispersal stand has also been very important on the farm for health and safety and you see more on it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7uinpDPbK0

Further updates from the McCarthys are at:

https://teagasc.ie/animals/beef/demonstration-farms/future-beef-programme/farmers/eamon-donnchadh-mccarthy/

For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, visit the show page at:
https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge

 
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