He feeds continental-type bulls on a mainly home-grown ration. The aim is to slaughter in excess of 300 bulls annually.

All bulls are killed nearby in Euro Farm Foods, Duleek.

“I look for an animal that has the potential to grade U+, arriving here between 450-550 kg. If they hit the farm early in the year, they’ll get a spell at grass. The costs of the feed conversion that these types of bulls do at grass is small and it’s a good way of getting cheap kilos on. They come in then and we try to turn them around as quickly as possible. Bulls arriving from July onwards don’t graze – the power goes from grass from then on and the weather gets variable,” Donal said.

Bulls over heifers

Donal’s finishing shed is a six-bay double with open sides and rubber slatted floors.

“The factories want heifers, but I choose the bull. He’ll convert the feed for you. If an animal is young enough coming in we try to do him at under 16 months to get on the quality assurance grid, but the majority of what we kill will be older. Because they’re not seen as prime cattle, I’m slightly exposed. The price is lower and more volatile. My carcase is a heavy one, but there’s a market for those too – albeit a lower-value one. What helps me is that most of the diet is produced on-farm. I don’t have the cost of buying high-spec commercial rations.”

Watch the video here

The diet

The diet consists of fodder beet, maize silage, caustic barley, straw (all home produced), maize meal, urea, buffers and minerals (bought in). The formulation is not rigid; Donal feeds in synergy with his tillage enterprise – keeping any high-moisture grain for the bulls. Wheat and oats often appear at the feed-face too.

Read more

Beef trade hardens as farmers resist price drop.

Adding fresh dimensions to a simple suckler system.