Cultivate Farming News
11 July, 2023Energy and Farm Diversification Show
Cultivate are delighted to be once again sponsoring the Energy and Farm Diversification Show this year. It is an unmissable event for farmers interested in learning more about the latest innovations in the agri sector.
The event takes place next Thursday, 20th July in Gurteen Agricultural College in Tipperary. For more information and to pre-register see here.
Tips for finishing cattle off grass
With beef prices falling, Kieran Mailey writing in the Irish Farmers Journal encourages farmers to consider grass finishing. See some of his tips below;
👉Before committing to finishing cattle, do up a simple budget to see if there is return from killing cattle off grass.
👉There is no point in feeding meal for a period longer than 50 days when finishing cattle off grass, as feed conversion will drop. Select cattle within 40kg to 60kg below the target finishing weight before increasing meal feeding.
👉Separate finishing cattle for grazing and feeding, give cattle that will be finished off grass priority grazing to maintain weight gain and limit meal feeding levels.
👉Before beginning meal feeding make sure animals have been treated for internal parasites that could hinder performance.
Key takeaways from Teagasc Moorepark Event
The Teagasc Moorepark Dairy Open Day took place last week.
The theme was ‘Securing a Sustainable Future’ Agriland highlighted some key takeaways from the event;
👉Sustainability: Pressure on the dairy sector is coming from a number of directions, but the sector is very much up for the challenge it appears. The carbon footprint of Irish milk is one of the lowest in the world; based on national activity data from 2017-2019, the average dairy carbon footprint was 0.97kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)/kg of fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM).
👉Water quality and nitrates were a concern for many farmers in attendance. Farmers were reminded that improving water quality is a long process involving increased uptake in measures such as improving soil fertility, using low emission slurry spreading (LESS), strategic fertiliser use, hedgerow management etc.
👉Grazed grass is key to the Irish dairy production systems and although stocking rates have increased on milking platforms, grass utilisation has not. The target, according to Teagasc, is to have 70% of the cows’ diet from grazed grass – which equates to 265 days at grass.
👉Working week A study conducted by Teagasc determined that 25% of the most time-efficient farmers worked on average 51 hours/week.
If you are a dairy farmer looking to develop your farm and live close to St Colmcille’s (Kells) Credit Union, contact us today on 
0469240299 and we can talk through your funding options over the phone or visit 
www.KellsCreditUnion.ie for more information.
