March 14, 2021, 6:00 am
When you walk into the suckler housing belonging to Brian Brady from Co. Cavan, there are no signs of your typical commercial Limousin, Simmental or Charolais cow.
Instead, the shed houses good traditionally-bred Angus cross cows with a mixture of Shorthorn breeding.
Farming over 60ac on the outskirts of Kilcogy,
AgriLand recently spoke with Brian about the management of his 25-cow suckler herd and his approach to breeding on the farm.
Overview of the farm
Suckler cows were always one of the main enterprises on the farm, with Brian taking over from his uncle back in 1984. Currently there is both a suckler-to-weanling/store and suckler-to-beef enterprise in operation on the farm.
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Using a “team of bulls” on his suckler herd has helped North Tipperary farmer Thomas Hogan to achieve a 20pc increase in the Replacement Index of his entire herd.
Civil servants in Northern Ireland have given the first official outline of how new farm support payments could look in the region post-2021.
Rosemary Agnew, director of the department’s Brexit Food and Farming Group, told the Stormont Agriculture Committee on Thursday (January 28) the main form of support would likely be a ‘Basic Income Support Payment’.
“[It will be] very, very similar, but a simplified version of what the Basic Payment Scheme is,” she said.
“And that would be a basic resilience payment. [The minister has also begun to outline his] thoughts around bringing forward a couple of support payments for suckler cows and breeding ewes and future agri-environment schemes.”