A healthy suckler system in Co. Wicklow

John Pringle, his wife Linda, and their children Lucy, William, and Scott run their 58 hectare (ha), single block, mixed farm in Kilacloran, near Aughrim. The layout of the farm is long and narrow and rises from approximately 330ft to 640ft above sea level at the highest point. The block comprises: 52.8ha of permanent grassland; 3.2ha of low input grassland; and 2ha of swedes
John runs a suckler calf-to-beef system consisting of 50 spring-calving suckler cows. The males are finished as under-16-months bull beef, while the heifers, not retained for breeding, are finished at around 21 months. Simmental is the dominant breed on his farm with most of the sucklers being bred by Simmental sires. John keeps two stock bulls. One is a high replacement index Simmental bull with good carcass traits that breeds replacements and, in recent years, John has added an easy-calving Shorthorn stock bull.
He also has a mid-season ewe lambing flock of around 230. The farm is well paddocked with approximately 30 grazing divisions. Depending on grass growth and demand, John can also sub-divide some of the larger paddocks with temporary fencing if required. During the year there are three main grazing groups; two groups of cows and calves grazed with ewes and lambs, and one group of fattening heifers grazed with replacement hoggets.

A successful suckler farm

The Pringles have participated in the Teagasc FutureBeef programme for three years, and theirs is an example of a great family farm, says Peter. “John’s parents are still very active, with his father, Billy, there to give a hand with the day-to-day jobs. So, it’s a real family work unit and a traditional mixed farm. In terms of stocking, it’s almost 50:50 with sheep and sucklers. There’s a mid-season lambing enterprise with 230 ewes. John keeps about 60 ewe lambs as replacements and calves down 50 spring-calving sucklers from late February, finishing calving in mid-April. He has put a huge emphasis on suckler cow breeding and invested a lot of time and money in improving genetics. That’s the foundation of any successful suckler farm. The template is that the replacement heifers coming into the herd every year are better than the previous generation. John breeds his own replacements and puts a huge emphasis on maternal traits in his replacement stock.”

Disease prevention

For many years the Pringles have operated a closed-herd policy for disease prevention and biosecurity, Peter explains: “In Wicklow, TB is always an issue and never too far around the corner, so there is a great awareness around keeping it out of the herd. The fact that all cattle are finished on the farm, works well into this closed-herd policy. The bulls finish under 16 months of age within the 400kg carcass weight spec, as well as ticking all the boxes for conformation and fat scores for targeted market outlets.” The Teagasc advisor further outlines the precautionary approach to herd health and animal welfare taken on the Pringle farm: “Firstly, in relation to herd health, John and his family put a huge emphasis on mitigating problems with a prevention-rather-than-cure policy. This is particularly the case in relation to minimising antimicrobial resistance, both with antibiotic use and their practices around worming. Vaccines are used for the prevention and reduction of pneumonia as well as scour in calves.” Peter says that John was very vocal on the risk posed by bluetongue disease, advocating strongly in favour of vaccination for all susceptible animals on the farm. “You could describe John as an early adaptor,” says Peter.

Putting technology to work

Describing the Pringles' adoption of breeding technologies, Peter says: “In terms of synchronisation, John has put a huge emphasis, as I mentioned, on breeding good sucker cows and having good females coming into the herd as replacements. Over the last couple of years John has worked with synchronising to facilitate AI and bring in new genetics and high-reliability bulls with good milk and fertility traits. He’s investing in the future of the herd the whole time.”

Finishing efficiently

Comenting on the performance efficiencies on the Pringle farm when it comes to finishing the beef stock, Peter says: “The whole thing with John’s bull beef system is hitting the targets all the way through. I go back again to his suckler-cow breeding. That’s working for him; it’s all about getting the right calf to start with. It’s about getting the weaning rates and weights right. It’s about getting as much weight on the calf from grass and milk as possible, so John has a good head start when the calf is weaned. After that, it’s just keeping that weanling on target.”
Peter says that one of John’s milestones – as well as his biggest targets – is achieving the 500kg live weight on the bull calves. He continues: “Then it goes on to an ad-lib-type feeding system for the final push to get them up to around 720kg live weight for a kill out of 400kg carcass weight. John can get a lot of live weight from good quality silage. He has adopted some red clover swards and makes high-quality bales for the bulls. Also, if he has a surplus of leafy, highly digestible grass paddocks, especially in the first half of the year, they are earmarked for the bulls because it’s really good value feed.”

High output ewe flock

Attention to detail doesn’t stop with the cattle herd. The Pringles carry that across to their sheep flock too, Peter says: “John has been aiming for an ewe that has been scanned with 1.8 lambs joined to the ram. Again, genetics plays as big a part as flock management. Over the years Belclare genetics have been used. Some Texel and Charolais genetics have also been used and recently Vendeen rams are being put to the hoggets and ewe lambs for easy lambing.”

Conclusion

Peter sums up the Pringle farming policy: “There is no perfect suckler cow. But John’s approach is to breed a suckler cow that produces a weaned calf every year. That’s his main ambition and target. The Simmental breed works for him. He has a liking for the breed and there’s good beef merit traits with the breed in fairness, and milk as well. The whole thing for John is that there's plenty of milk for the calf and that’s working for him. He’s getting good growth rates in his bulls and heifers.”