Starting Farming - Advice appreciated

REBEL COUNTY1

Have been out of the country for a number of years due to work, only returned home recently. Since the passing of my father when i was a child the family farm was always rented out but am planning on taking over a few acres of it to start maybe 15 acres, to rear a few sucklers. I am in the process of getting a herd number.

I am considering breeding purebred aa. Any thoughts on this and disadvanatages of purebreds?

I am only planning on buying about 5 sucklers to start with and using ai for breeding. What sort of acres would i need per head for hopefully 9 months of the year (land has good drainage so hopefully cattle will be out for March - November) ?

I hopefully will buy in silage for winter feed. I dont understand why more farmers dont buy in bales of silage? Between the cost of fertiliser, contractor costs, silage wraps etc from what i can see your talking 18euro a bale anyway. This is also taking up large amount of land for the summer months which could be used for grazing. I understand the difficulty in shortage of bales etc in the winter time but if it is plentyful in the summer why not buy it in, even year old silage that will keep for the winter coming anyway? Can be bought for 20euro a bale (plus transport costs) seems cost effective providing your getting good silage.

Also is it possible for me to apply for the sfp with 15 acres?? Technically speaking the land would be in my mothers name so i will have to lease it out from her!!

I havent been farming since i was a child and i know these questions are very trivial in the big scale of farming but would appreciate any help! thanks

Dont be daft

The reason why more dont buy in silage is pretty simple.
Your grass peaks in terms of growth during the early summer which means if you have a constant amount of livestock on the land you'll have surplus grass.
By taking out paddocks for grass your removing the excess which you otherwise wouldnt be able to graze.
You also give yourself certainty heading into winter in terms of forage security as the price of forage can and does fluctuate. I can remember silage at 30 yoyo's a bale a few years ago.

I cant tell you much about AA or suckling, its not my area of expertise.
If you havent farmed since you were a child then its advisable to do a part-time course in suckler management or something similar.
Farming has moved on a lot in the last 10-15 years and it could be a very expensive learning curve.
There are other benefits to these courses like stamp duty exemptions, stock relief and I'd envisage some benefit in terms of SFP in the future.

Acreage per head is entirely dependent on what kind of system you intend on running.
i.e. will you bring all progeny to slaughter? if so what age do you intend on slaughtering? How productive is the land? etc.

wiggy123

good choice.. as angus's are on a up this year--hopefully back in the big time!
unsure if get sfp, has your mum being getting it..on the land? or das payments....
also--you might be able to apply for entitlements depending on age etc.. or buy some..
15 acres--do plenty of angus's...
i breed them--and do find they take less ground that other breeds.. try to keep weigh off them....
true-about bales.. silage.. but never know what ya buy in...at least--mae ur own.. know how good or bad it is...i do find

josephsoap

Another idea could be keep the 15 acres and take two cuts (maybe even three if you have good ground) of bale silage off it and sell the bales.

You'd have lots of customers for them this year anyway

porter shark

selling bales would be the worst possible option and this year would be the worst possible year to do it. joe must be from a city forum!!!!!

angus is definitly up this year, the boys that sell semen are the first to know the trends.

i'd be more inclined to go limousin but everyone to their own....

except selling bales, thats unforgiveable.

REBEL COUNTY1

Dont be daft wrote: »

The reason why more dont buy in silage is pretty simple.
Your grass peaks in terms of growth during the early summer which means if you have a constant amount of livestock on the land you'll have surplus grass.
By taking out paddocks for grass your removing the excess which you otherwise wouldnt be able to graze.
You also give yourself certainty heading into winter in terms of forage security as the price of forage can and does fluctuate. I can remember silage at 30 yoyo's a bale a few years ago.

I cant tell you much about AA or suckling, its not my area of expertise.
If you havent farmed since you were a child then its advisable to do a part-time course in suckler management or something similar.
Farming has moved on a lot in the last 10-15 years and it could be a very expensive learning curve.
There are other benefits to these courses like stamp duty exemptions, stock relief and I'd envisage some benefit in terms of SFP in the future.

Acreage per head is entirely dependent on what kind of system you intend on running.
i.e. will you bring all progeny to slaughter? if so what age do you intend on slaughtering? How productive is the land? etc.

Thanks, good advice. Have you any idea of such courses? Presume Teagasc is the starting point to look for such courses?

REBEL COUNTY1

wiggy123 wrote: »

good choice.. as angus's are on a up this year--hopefully back in the big time!
unsure if get sfp, has your mum being getting it..on the land? or das payments....
also--you might be able to apply for entitlements depending on age etc.. or buy some..
15 acres--do plenty of angus's...
i breed them--and do find they take less ground that other breeds.. try to keep weigh off them....
true-about bales.. silage.. but never know what ya buy in...at least--mae ur own.. know how good or bad it is...i do find

Thanks, From what i know is it true that by crossbreeding separate breeds your calf is on average 10% better all round!!?? But i presume by breeding purebeds of the same breed the calfs would fetch a bette price especially if selling for replacement cows or bulls?? any thoughts? Are purebreds more suceptable to diseases like dogs for sake?

And roughly if you have good land would it be 1.5 -2 acres per head of aa?

Tipp Man

If on a small scale and with a relatively short winter then buying in silage, or certainly a high proportion of it, is completley justifyable.

Without even changing your stocking rate the reduction in your fertiliser bill will buy a fair few bales

Dont be daft

REBEL COUNTY1 wrote: »

Thanks, good advice. Have you any idea of such courses? Presume Teagasc is the starting point to look for such courses?

Yeah Teagasc do a whole load of different courses. I did a part-time one year course with them but I dont think they're running it anymore.

Learned a lot from it, my brother did the same course with a "these clowns haven't a clue attitude" and effectively learned nothing. So you get out of it what you put in.

There's a whole section somewere on www.tegeasc.ie about the courses available. If your doing a course with them you can also get a lot of advice in terms SFP applications and all that kind of stuff from their advisors. I found this really helpful at the time.

REBEL COUNTY1

Dont be daft wrote: »

Yeah Teagasc do a whole load of different courses. I did a part-time one year course with them but I dont think they're running it anymore.

Learned a lot from it, my brother did the same course with a "these clowns haven't a clue attitude" and effectively learned nothing. So you get out of it what you put in.

There's a whole section somewere on www.tegeasc.ie about the courses available. If your doing a course with them you can also get a lot of advice in terms SFP applications and all that kind of stuff from their advisors. I found this really helpful at the time.

Good stuff, would enjoy course like that alright. Cheers