Page 2 - Beef Advice News Today

It was another case of ‘small farming, big problems’ last week in the money pit that is my small pedigree Angus herd. I went out to the shed around 9pm with the intention of forking in some silage and being back inside before the kettle had finished boiling for the tea.

With calving and lambing in sight, I feel we’re halfway through winter — in this part of the country, anyway — and it’s is a good time to assess the remaining feed supplies.

As well as farming, I teach full-time and I have two young daughters. To complicate matters further, my farm is fragmented into two main blocks: 22ha (54ac) of dry land here and 36ha in Tulla, Co Clare, almost 36km away.

The two main challenges facing tillage farmers are the maintenance/increase in cropland area and the sourcing of adequate quantities of seed for 2024.

I wasn’t long out of college when my first car gave up the ghost and I decided I wanted to buy a jeep. Not having the money to spring for a new one, I bought a second hand ‘bargain’ on the advice of a fellow vet, and so began eight months of torture.

The festive cheer in the beef trade is continuing into the new year, with finished beef prices continuing to harden.

‘Herefords will be part of my farming system for the foreseeable future,” says Maurice Hallahan, the recently crowned Irish Hereford Prime Farmer of the Year for 2023.

It’s been a stressful start to the new year in our veterinary practice. The changeover from our old ‘practice management software’ to a new, completely different system has been, let’s say, challenging.

“If we get the animal’s emotions right, we will have fewer problem behaviours” – Temple Grandin

It’s instructive for farmers to have a quick look at what officialdom apparently regards as positive developments in Irish farming.