April 15 @ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Ken Gill is an organic beef and tillage farmer near Edenderry Co. Offaly. He keeps around 60-70 suckler cows and finishes animals at 2 years, which are all completely grass-fed. Prior to 2015, he was farming conventionally but struggling to make it work financially. He tried organics and has been impressed with the results ‘’The grazing ground gets very little fertiliser, it’s amazing. Soil tests a few years after going organic showed P & K levels had improved rather than declined’. He has been carefully managing soil fertility since, ensuring no ground is left bare and catching and using effluent that runs off the yard. In his rotation, he produces turnip, kale and rape for fodder, which also has the benefit of breaking up the soil for subsequent crops. He produces around 8 hectares (20 ac) of oats for Flahavan’s, and then introduces red clover for fertility.
He is a part of the Teagasc Future Beef group. In 2023, group members reported very poor grass growth. In contrast, he notes in ‘our system the weather didn’t make much difference, it was more resilient compared to the other Future Beef farmers – the financial figures are more than holding their own’. He used to keep a ‘short, back and sides’ approach to hedgerow management but now lets them grow. He has observed how the hedge provides a shelter not just for cattle but for grass too ‘you can see it after a cold east wind for a couple of weeks, there is a big difference between the exposed field and the sheltered fields.’ This is just one example on his farm of ‘how helping nature helps your bottom line too’.
