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Red shows Field Boundary and field divisions

Blue is livestock  roadways

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Continue attending meetings and conferences to continue making progress to improve the farm

Invest in infrastructure to help improve the quality of the farm and making the handling of the stock easier.

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16 heacre farm based in Rathangan, Co. Kildare. the farm is based on a mineral soil running down onto peat soil on the bog. The subsoil is high in molybdenum  which can require supplementation of minerals.
Land
9 acres - 14 acres divided into 3
factory gardens - 4 acres divided into 3 blocks
back field -3 acres divided into two blocks
sand Burrows - 5 acre field
bog fields - 14 acres divided 5, 5 and 4 acres

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Land - All the land is in one block with the farm yard in the middle

High fertile ground which will help boost grass growth

Up to date soil tests are available for the farm which gives great knowledge into the farm and how to manage

Rotation - Constant reseeding allows for maximum grass growth with very little weeds due to the tillage rotation.

Technology - Grass management has not be tried on the farm so there is no negative experiences associated.

Farmer of 50 years of age and already producing high quality tillage crops with the use of up to date modern technology. This should allow for easy learning of grass techniques

Son with an interest in farming which will help improve the farm and reduce the work load

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Soil - Peaty soil running down into the bog which can cause restrictions to early grazing

Rotation - Currently the grazing block is in a 3 year grass rotation before returning back to tillage

Soil - High molybdenum soil is creating a high PH soil which is locking up macro and micro nutrients with can cause deficiency in the grass and in the livestock on the farm

silage - currently there is no silage preserved on the farm due to lack of grass

Infrastructure - Due to the land in rotation the cost of temporary fencing is an issue

Health - In an area where TB is an issue due to health which can mean being locked up and unable to sell calves

Discussion groups - Part of a tillage discussion group but no involvement in the beef or grass groups.

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9 acres field and sand burrows will be put back into cereal production in September 2019 with a new 33 acre block being sown in grass in July 2019

Son on the farm with a strong initiative to promote performance with the intentions to start UCD in September 2019

Join a grass based discussion group

join a beef discussion group

Attend farm walks and open days

Grass measuring on a regular bases

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Time is an issue to the mixed farming approach. during busy seasons on the tillage the grass area could suffer

Grassland is based on the poorest of the land currently available to the farmer. this could be an issue of times of poor weather.

Price of stores that are bought in each year can affect the total number of stock on the farm with big variations

Policy - Future policy could affect the viability for such a small suckler enterprise.

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                            5 Year plan of action 

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                            5 Year plan of action 

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Divide the grazing block into three sections of appropriate size. group for cows and calves, group of year olds and a group for bought in dairy calves

Divide the fields so that each paddock has a grazing rotation of 5 days max for each group of animals

Map the farm and develope infrustrucute for easy movement of livestock

Investigate the uses of alternative crops such as winter fodder crops to reduce stocking rate and increase production of tillage area

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Use data from year 2 to plan out rotations and wedges to help maximize growth on the farm

Regular grass measuring on a weekly basis

Retest soils to monitor nutrient levels in the soil and act accordingly

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Learn how to grass measure and use that technology to measure the farm

Enter data into pasturebase Ireland or agrinet

Attend meeting and group discussion on grass measuring and management

Sow down new area of grass and create infrastructure to suit rotation of livestock

increase of 14 acres of grassland can be used to better plan for silage production along with increasing stock numbers

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continue collecting data and grass measuring to improve grass quality and improve management and rotations using the data.

Using data collected from the two years and the soil tests. look into reseeding some of the permanent pasture. 4 acre field in the bog field is in grass 20+ years

Data can be used to help improve
Stocking Rate
Grass Quality
Grass Yield
Silage Quantity and Quality
Calving data to suit system
Utilization
Increase Profit

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Record proformance of the farm and draw up a new 5 year plan for rotation of grass and fields that require reseeding.

Pick out a field for reseeding in year 5 if required

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Pasture base and agrinet can help record grass covers and are used to draw up grazing plans

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PastureBase Ireland. PastureBaseIreland is a grassland management decision support tool and a mechanism to capture background data on farms.

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17 cows and 14 calves
12 dairy x calves
43 year olds for slaughter in June

Stock bull in rented for the 12 weeks of the breeding season

Intentions is to by in 25 young stock to replace what will be slaughtered in June. this will be fore slaughter following February or June depending and price and quality

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easy access to weather forecast can help improve short term decisions

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Currently large under utilization of grass on Irish farms 4.8t/Ha (O'Donovan et al., 2011; French 2011)

Protential to grow 12-14t/Ha (O'Donovan et al., 2011)

Better farms that use Pasturease Ireland are achieving an average of 11t/ha with it ranging from 6t/ha to 16t/ha

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Aim of the 5 year plan is to - utilize more grass
- Better management to produce highter quality
- Produce more grass to support the production of silage
- grass measure and create grass management plans