Wesley Browne farms a typical Monaghan farm, with lots of hills and hollows, just outside Monaghan town. He’s a suckler man through and through, who places a lot of thought into the genetics he uses, and a participant in the Teagasc Future Beef Programme.

He’s also a full-time farmer, so the system he runs has to work. He doesn’t have the cushion of a job to pay the bills if the farm isn’t fit. It has to be fit.

Over the years, Wesley has built up cow numbers to 90 – a number which just brings him in under derogation at 169kg/N/ha. He doesn’t want to go into derogation and doesn’t want to take more land or up cow numbers.

When asked about castrating some of his lighter bulls, Wesley remarked: “I don’t want stock here any longer than they have to be, I need to keep stock moving and out the gate.”

His system is working where it is at the moment and he’s happy that he can run it with the help of his family.

Last Friday evening, he hosted a farm walk in conjunction with the local North Eastern Simmental Club and the Irish Simmental Cattle Society, with Conal Murnaghan from Teagasc also speaking at the event.

Wesley likes to keep things simple. Three bulls with three groups of cows. The breeding of the suckler cow is central to his system and that’s a cross between a Simmental and a Limousin.

He has toyed with other breeds but has come back to the Simmental cross as being the cow that suits his system.

His current herd average for the herd’s replacement index is €116, including a figure of 21kg for carcase weight and 5.8kg for daughter milk. Calving interval stands at 372 days, with a calves per cow per year figure of 0.97.

Under 16-month bull beef

Wesley has perfected the under 16-month bull beef system on his farm. Table 1 outlines four Simmental cross bulls picked out for demonstration on Friday night.

The four bulls have a very impressive lifetime gain, ranging between 1.48-1.58kg/day since birth. Interestingly, these bulls will all be killed under 15 months and yet hit a carcase weight of over 400kg.

Looking at Wesley’s bulls on Friday night and the efficiency of his system, you would have to ask questions about why the industry has moved away from such an efficient system, shaving over 12 months of methane emissions off male animals and a technology that can be employed on any farm.

Wesley is a figures man. He’s followed the replacement and terminal index through the years and bought animals with genetics that complement or strengthen his animals.

“The indexes are working on this farm, yes you will always have one or two outliers, but in general I am happy that performance is following the indexes.

I am especially impressed with how the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) is working and it’s really interesting to look down through your bulls’ slaughter performance and compare them with their CBV.”

Profit

Proof of any system is the bottom line, and Welsey’s 2024 profit monitor shows a healthy gross margin figure of €1,612/ha before any fixed costs are applied.

The system has a high output figure of 855kg/ha (€3,033/ha), but more importantly each livestock unit on the farm is working, putting out 380kg/LU.

Where to from here? Wesley doesn’t intend on making any huge changes. He’s going to keep honing in on the sub indexes of his animals and he hopes to drive his young bull carcase weight to over 400kg very soon.

In a change from the usual script of suckling being a twilight industry, Friday evening’s farm walk was a remarkably positive one, with contributions from young and old on the night.

Farmers went away buoyed by the idea of selling young 15-month bulls at €3,500 and Wesley’s farm just goes to show there’s life in the suckler cow system yet.