2025 Spring Meeting

The Ulster Grassland Society’s Spring Meeting took place on Wednesday 30th April at the farm of Philip Truesdale,  Ballyward, Co Down when almost 100 members and grassland enthusiasts attended

The farm walk was blessed with wonderful weather as UGS members and friends assembled for registration with the nearby Mourne Mountains bathed in glorious sunshine. Lots of chat, and no doubt much discussion on silage making, took place over an enjoyable cup of tea or coffee before Ulster Grassland Society President Michael Graham introduced the host farmer Philip Truesdale to the assembled crowd

Philip Truesdale, a third generation farmer, took over in 2015 after returning from agricultural college initially with the existing beef and sheep enterprises where he sought to improve grassland management with the longer term objective of switching to dairying. This was achieved in Autumn 2020 with 60 heifers calving down after buildings were converted and a milking parlour installed.

Today the farm extends to 210 acres which is all down to grass across a number of sites at an average elevation of 600 ft in an area which typically sees 30 inches of rain and relies totally on family labour. In addition to the dairy herd, which has been increased to 95 Autumn calving Holstein cows, around 85 replacement heifers are kept as herd size increases and about 25 Angus cross calves are finished each year along with a sheep flock of 50 crossbred ewes.

The main objectives on this progressive farm are to:

• utilise the acres available to maximise grass growth
• produce a solid cow which can graze and have excellent fertility
• make system simple and try not to complicate the process
• expand buildings to increase herd size
• reduce workload on farm to spend more time with the family

The cows now graze a 30 acre grazing platform with mainly smaller fields of 2-4 acres generally grazing 1 acre during the day and cows housed at night with surpluses taken out as silage. Grass covers of 3,000-3,300kgDM / Ha are sought with a grazing interval of around 17-18 days. Pre-mowing is used for 3 rotations to help increase grass intakes and manage swards. The tight grazing platform requires flexible management to cope with the weather with night time grazing used if weather has been unfavourable for 12 hours.

Cows calve between September and January with Genus ABS sexed semen used for the past five years. Bulls used in recent years have included Stark; Skeltator; Episode and Grenade with Envoy; Grenade and Spock used this year. Normal conception rate is 55% with 1.7 services required on average to achieve pregnant cows. An Aberdeen Angus bull is used to sweep cows not holding to AI.

Herd performance in 2023/24 was 9,650 litres milk sold per cow at 4.1% BF and 3.44% P and average Somatic Cell Count of 184 cells/ml. Meal feeding was 3,500 kgs/cow to give a feed rate of 0.36kg/litre. The average herd size was 95 cows with 34 heifers due to calve this Autumn.

A three cut silage system has been in operation for several years with first cut taken in early May followed by a second cut in mid June followed by a third cut in mid August with consideration being given to taking a fourth cut in 2025. Slurry is applied to silage ground via dribble bar with Straight N used on both silage and grazing ground topped up with a blend when required based on soil analysis. Sulphur is also normally applied. Clamp silage is normally made using a trailed harvester with baling undertaken by contractor.

Due to soil type and prevalence of stones reseeding is mainly by MinTill with a large disc used to create a seedbed on shallow ground. Fields are sampled every two years with only 5% of land requiring lime in recent years. Varieties used in recent years have included AberZeus; AberGain and AberGreen with no clover sown . New swards have recorded 18T DM/Ha with old leys generally achieving 10T DM/Ha at best.

Young stock are grazed across six areas of land on a rotational grazing basis with surplus grass removed as silage throughout the year – 300 bales taken in 2024. The aim is to have young stock at grass for 200 days.

Throughout the visit there was good discussion and plenty of questions from visitors helped of course by our hosts ability to clearly answer questions and express his views which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by those in attendance.

At the conclusion of the visit a vote of thanks to Philip Truesdale was ably proposed by UGS President Elect Ivor Lowry before visitors enjoyed an excellent BBQ which allowed further time for discussion and the opportunity to reflect on a very enjoyable and informative visit.