Fergus Hanly - Organic Beef Farmer

Fergus Hanly farms 30Ha of free draining land on the banks of the river Deel just before it flows into the Shannon estuary. Fergus converted his farm to organic approximately 12 years ago. He operates a weanling to finishing beef system where he buys in approximately 35 weanlings in October/November and keeps them for 12 months, when they are sold off grass.
Prior to converting to organics, Fergus used to house all cattle on slats. After switching to organic production he built an extension on to the existing shed to provide a straw bedded lie back area. A new straw-bedded area. 7.6m wide, was added to the back of the slatted area. As the pillars on the existing shed were strong enough, he was able to graft onto these. Three 1.8m wide openings were cut out of the existing back wall to allow multiple access points for cattle to access the straw bedded lie-back.
Ventilated sheeting was erected along the back wall and the front section was left open, resulting in plenty of air flow in the shed. A cattle crush was built along the back wall of the shed and a large sliding door was constructed to allow easy access for cleaning out the shed. A new manure pit was also built at the same time as the shed for storing the FYM. Fergus uses a 4x4 bale of straw every 3 days, and a load of 30 bales would last the winter. He cleans out the shed every 3-4 weeks.
Fergus paid his builder €40,000 (including VAT) at the time, but this included the construction of the manure pit, cattle crush and some remedial works to other sheds within the yard. He estimates that the shed was responsible for approximately €30,000 of the total spend. He did not receive any grants for the project.