Both farmers are dealing with challenging ground conditions. Sean O’Riordans farm is very heavy and hilly and Conor Creedon’s farm is very high and hilly. The 375 farmers in attendance knew all about the hills when walking between the boards on both farms – there was plenty of perspiring foreheads as the sun was beating down with temperatures in excess of 25°C.

However, the sun didn’t sap all the energy with plenty of questioning of both farmers and there systems.

Sean is milking 100 cows on his 40 hectare milking platform outside Kiskeam. Annual rainfall on this farm with heavy clay soils is two meters per year – nearly three times the amount of rainfall at the Greenfield Farm in Kilkenny.

Soil fertility and drainage have been Sean’s main focus since taking over the farm in 2001. Last year the farm grew 10.5t/ha on average but there is a big a variation between paddocks from 14t/ha to less than 5t/ha which Sean can pinpoint back to soil fertility and drainage status.

Sean is growing an extra 2t/ha of grass on the fields that are at optimum for pH. At this stage about half the farm is OK for lime. Phosphorus is a very different story with 73% of the farm deficient. He is spreading 40kg/ha per year but feels this isn’t enough. Teagasc advisor Ger Courtney explained that in heavy clay soils phosphorus availability is reduced by about 40% as phosphorus gets locked up in the soil particles.

Soil fertility

Soil fertility was a key theme at the afternoon session on Conor Creedon’s farm in Rathmore. While soil type was much freer draining on Conor’s farm the land was very steep and high with some parts over 1,000 feet above sea level.

Conor was scathing of the current system where he feels farms are being run down on phosphorus levels before sufficient chemical phosphorus can be applied, and even at this the quantities are not enough to shift indexes.

“At the very least I think Index three should be broken up into two or three segments as there is a huge difference between the top and the bottom of the index. The average phosphorus level on my farm is 5.02ppm which is at the very bottom of the index and is treated the same as a farm at 7.9ppm which is at the top end.”

Farming at altitude is not hampering Conor’s ability to grow grass with average growth last year of 15.5t/ha. The milking block is stocked at 3.7 cows/ha but overall stocking rate is 2.7 cows/ha. Milk solids produced was 1,520kg/ha in 2015 from 580kg of meal fed. The herd has been crossed with Jersey since 2010.

Sean O’Riordan’s herd produced 1,004kg milk solids/ha in 2015 with 680kg of meal fed. Full report in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.