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The objective of my 5 year farm plan is to make significant improvements to the grazing infrastructure and management of the farm and to get the farm at home operating to its potential.

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Farm should be working at optimum level at this stage and we will be only making minor adjustments to improve from the previous 4 years in terms of grazing infrastructure and grazing plan.

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Using the last 3 years of data collected review and assess stocking rate, grazing plan, grass utilisation and the total grass herbage produced on the farm.

Commence soil testing of the farm again, as 3 years would have lapsed since last tested.

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Start attending farm walks and open days.

Continue grass measuring every week.

Begin a reseeding programme after assessing the soil test results.

Assess the performance of sowing Redstart for finishing lambs and look at the possibility of sowing it again.

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Begin a rotational paddock grazing system with strip grazing.

Begin routine grass measurement and farm walks.

Join PastureBase and enter data from grassland measurement.

Commence building cattle shed.

Join local discussion groups.

Soil test the remaining 42 acres of the farm.

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Soil test 50 acres of the farm.

Sow a field of Redstart to finish lambs.

Build a bridge connecting two fields together, to make them accessible by livestock and machinery.

Expand the farm yard.

Start the planning process of new cattle housing for the yard.

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Marked location of the developing farm yard and some of the surrounding fields.

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Brexit and with a lot of uncertainty over price of produce.

With increasing prices of inputs such as concentrates, fertiliser, very hard to make a substantial living with the price of our produce for a small scale farm.

Extreme weather events getting a lot more frequent in recent times.

Introduction of policies to combat global warming- GHG regulations.

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Increase and improve the suckler and sheep enterprise. Would love to go into the dairy industry in the future but must expand the grazing block, however that is impossible at the moment.

Begin grass measuring weekly, so to improve grass utilisation and efficiency.

Join the local discussion groups focused on grass, beef and sheep.

Start attending farm walks and open days.

Join PastureBase.

Easycare breed of sheep

Multispecies swards for sheep

Silage quality testing

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Future of beef production- surrounded by dairy and dairy converts.

Land erosion every year due to river flowing by 30 acres of the grazing block. Constantly flooding every year and becoming a big worry with increasing number of storms and high rainfall each year.

Poor price for beef in the factories at the moment influences cash flow and expansion.

Extremely poor prices for wool at the moment, questions whether it is worth to sheer the sheep or not.

No reseeding programme in place

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Has bred suitable crossbred lowland ewes to suit the system.

The majority of the grazing block (60 acres) is all in one section around the growing farm yard.

Now that my father is full time working on the farm, he has willingness to progress and maximise the potential of the land.

Good potential to grow and utilise grass.

Majority of the grazing block is dry land, with 30 acres has the tendency to flood during the winter months.

Good soil testing being carried out on a regular basis.

Scanning ewes at 80-90 days after mating.

All lambs regularly weighed to assess performance.

All ewes are passed through a footbath on a regular basis, to prevent lameness e.g footrot.

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The farm is located in Fethard in South Tipperary. My father inherited this block of land 25 years ago. The block of land did not come with any farm yard or infrastructure of any type. It is only in the last 10 years have we started to develop a substantial central farm yard on the block of land. There is only one shed built on the yard so far which is primarily used for hay storage and for the housing of sheep during the lambing season. For the past 25 years all the sucklers and cattle have been winter housed in sheds in my fathers home place.

There is currently 92 acres on the grazing block. The block is all lowland grazing. The grazing block is also all in permanent pasture.

The farm has always been a beef and sheep farm.
28 spring calving cows
26 cattle 0-1
26 cattle 1-2
1 stock bull
150 low land breeding ewes
8 breeding rams