The second phase of the Teagasc Green Acres Calf to Beef programme was launched in the spring of 2019 and since then Jarlath Ruane along with our 11 other participating farmers have been working closely with our programme advisors Alan Dillon, James Fitzgerald and Seán Cummins on implementing farm plans aimed at achieving a net margin of €500/ha before farm subsidies are taken into account.

Today we meet our host farmer Jarlath Ruane who runs a calf to beef and lowland sheep system alongside his father Austin. As both men are employed full time locally, the farm is run part time. Jarlath runs through the day to day activities that take place on the farm, starting off with the early morning tasks like checking the health status of the calves in the pens, replenishing the milk replacer and water, as well as making sure there is sufficient enough and dry bedding.

As well as milk replacer, the calves also get meal, an 18% crude protein nut where they get as much as they can eat while they're on replacer. The levels of meal will be brought down when they get out to grass. Calves are also fed fresh straw to get the rumen fully developed before they get out to grass and are also fed straw for the first while at grass.

The calves that are bought in on the farm are holstein friesian, angus and limousin calves. The heaviest of them go on to be killed at 20-21 months of age and the rest go on to be killed at 28-30 months of age at grass. All calves that are bought in are bull calves. On arrival the calves get all their necessary vaccinations and doses.

When the calves are weaned they move outside where a shelter is provided for when it is raining, they are allocated fresh grass every two days and they are fed a kilo of meal every morning and evening. They are also getting fresh straw.

Sheep are grazing on the farm behind the calves in order to clean out the paddocks so that the calves don't have to graze down completely. The sheep have lambed in mid-February and the lambs are being creep fed. The lambs will be starting to be slaughtered from May through to August and replacement are bought in just to keep the sheep side of things as simple as possible.

Jarath goes through a paddock where there are 60 cattle, 33 of them are 2 year olds. There's a mix of cattle, including jersey cross calves which are sourced off local farmers. The target is to be killed out in July/August/September time at around 300 kilos. The younger cattle will be targeted on a 21-22 month finish inside and will be expecting a 315 carcass weight at finish. 30 of the lighter yearling will be killed at 30 months of age.

The 1st cut silage paddock was grazed off in early March with the sheep and lambs. It was closed up at the start of April where it got fertiliser. There isn't a great crop on it at the moment where the lack of growth has affected it. Hopefully they'll be able to take it out at the end of May and aim for a high quality silage and go back in for a second cut of silage. Yield isn't a major concern on the farm as they will be able to take bales out as the growth improves on the farm.

It's simple and suits the lifestyle as both Jarlath and Austin work full time off farm so time is limited working off the farm. The Ruanes are happy with the system that they're running and are positive for the future.

Throughout the day we are going to hear a lot more about Jarlath and Austin’s farm and so stay tuned in. We welcome any questions you might have and they can be asked through any of the Teagasc social media platforms.