My Farming Week – Michael D. Daly – 28/05/2012

My Farming Week – Michael D. Daly – 28/05/2012

My name is Michel D. Daly and I run a family farm at Tullaghan, Co. Leitrim, together with my wife Kathleen, son Cathal and daughter Catherine. All help on the farm.

We run 25 suckler cows, 10 of which are pedigree Charolais cows.

Most cows have been out to grass and despite the difficult year, grass has been well managed and we have sufficient for all stock. We follow a strict policy of dosing calves at 3, 8 and 13 weeks after turn out. The cows are bolused before turnout and we find this well worthwhile.

We keep a good eye on the calves in the cold weather to detect chills and thankfully we have been able to treat calves early when chills threatened.

Fertilizer has been sown over 4 weeks and grass growth on the silage ground is grand, despite the general poor growth.

We exhibited a Charolais bull at the recent pedigree show and sale in Carrick onShannonand “Gavin” by “Doonally New” sold for €4,500.00, in what was described as a steady sale. We like to attend the agricultural shows and we show our stock regularly at the local shows.

We have been MED members over 10 years and we regularly attend the Rural Enterprise Skillnet training events, which we find very beneficial.

We are members of the MED AI scheme and we bought good foundation breeding stock under the Gate to Plate project in 2005/2007.

We use AI on all our cows and we have been very pleased with the results. I am also trained in DIY AI.

 Pictures:

 1. Young calf  – Riverstown show winner in 2011

 2. Young calf sold at Tullamore Premier Charolais sale for €4,600.00 in February 2012

 3. “Gavin” by “Doonally New” sold in Carrick on Shannon for €4,500.00, in May 2012