Managing the mix

In week three of the BETTER farm programme’s challenge review, we take a look at the mixed grazing challenge.

The objective of the mixed grazing challenge was to establish a blueprint for operating a mixed grazing system – both cattle and sheep – and to identify the benefits associated with implementing such a system.

Three farmers signed up for the challenge. Here we profile two of those and pick out some of the key benefits they have identified.

Both farmers found marked benefits to their grassland management from having sheep and cattle on the farm, but more so grazing them in different parts of the year.

The infrastructure and management required to carry out day-to-day mixed grazing is an obstacle.

That said, we do know it can be done, with farms like Tullamore Farm having great success. Interestingly, both farmers here also credited the cash flow benefits a sheep enterprise can provide.

Co Laois

Harry, alongside his father Joe, is farming a mixed beef, sheep and tillage enterprise in Ballacolla.

The Lalor’s holding is one of the largest in the programme, comprising a total of 121ha situated in one block.

Without doubt, the primary component of the farm’s system is the suckler herd. This coming spring, beginning in early February, there are 120 cows due to calve down.

All progeny are taken to beef – under 16-month bulls and 24 month steers and heifers – except for replacement heifers.

One-hundred calves in a dairy calf-to-beef enterprise completes the beef system. The farm also has roughly 10ha of tillage and a flock of 320 ewes.

Sheep breeding commenced in early October, with 270 mature ewes and 50 ewe lambs going to the ram.

Lambing is therefore due to commence in early-March, which spells a busy spring period for the Lalors considering calving and the purchasing of dairy calves will also be on the agenda.

Grazing management

Grazing management is without doubt the most impressive aspect of the Lalors’ approach to mixed grazing. While the cattle and sheep will never graze together in the same field, they do complement each other at different times of the year.

“We assign different fields to the cattle and the sheep for the main part of the grazing season,” said Harry.

“But then in the back end, we let the sheep on to the ground where the cattle were.”

This has a huge benefit in terms of cleaning out the sward, especially any dead butt that the cattle would not have managed to eat all year.

Any ground the sheep graze from late October on won’t have grass on it until next April or May

On top of that, given how wet the back end turned out to be, the sheep were a very useful tool to close paddocks.

And while Harry admitted that “any ground the sheep graze from late October on won’t have grass on it until next April or May,” he continued to say that “if you manage it properly, and start closing ground early enough, you can still have grass for the spring.”

Looking across the farm, the grazing infrastructure is top-class. Harry explained “every 8-12ac of ground (depending on field size) are sheep-fenced. When cattle are grazing these areas, they can be sub-divided into 2-3ac”.

Clever positioning of water troughs is very important to make this technique work effectively.

Donegal

Father and son partnership Gerard and John Grieve are farming 45ha (a portion of which is leased) of predominantly heavy ground near Castlefinn in Co Donegal.

Similar to the Lalors, it’s a suckler, dairy-calf and sheep system in operation.

Since the commencement of the programme, suckler cow numbers have increased from just above the 30-cow mark to 40 suckler cows.

In-turn, ewe numbers have decreased slightly to just over the 100-mark.

The main benefit of the sheep is the chance they give us to shorten the winter

Ewe-type is a Suffolk-Charollais cross, going back to Charollais and Suffolk rams.

John said: “The main benefit of the sheep is the chance they give us to shorten the winter.

With the heavy nature of the land up here, it can be a very long winter on the cattle, especially with an autumn like the one just gone by.”

The sheep provide the Grieves with an opportunity to extend the grazing season significantly in the back end and also in the spring time if weather plays ball and lambing goes well.

Breeding lasted for three weeks and we are very happy with how it went

“One hundred and six ewes, including 30 ewe lambs, went to the ram on 25 October,” John said.

“Breeding lasted for three weeks and we are very happy with how it went. All but one ewe looks to have been tipped.”

The first lambs will be due on St Patrick’s Day but at that stage, John explained that over 90% of their 38 spring-calving cows should be calved.

After lambing, ewes would usually graze the silage ground before it is closed, thus giving a very clean base to grow the crop.

While the ewes graze the out-block for the middle of the year, they come back to graze the home farm – where the cattle were grazing – at the end of the year.

This autumn, the ewes were able to extend the grazing season by at least six weeks after the cattle were housed.

Probably the main evidence to demonstrate just how well grazing is working on the Grieves’ farm is the strides they have made in annual grass growth.

In 2017, at the start of the programme, the farm grew 5.04t DM/ha. For 2019, that figure has climbed dramatically to 13.77t DM/ha.