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The Kirwan farm in Tipperary is a farm in transition. Not only have cow numbers increased from 70 three years ago to 195 today, the type of cow has changed also.
Ten years ago, Joe and Kathleen had one of the highest yielding herds in Tipperary, with average milk yield per cow around 9,000 litres per year.
Six years ago, Joe started to dabble with crossbreeding.
"I did the very thing I was telling farmers not to do, and that’s dabble using Kiwi cross bulls. When those first few heifers came in milking I was kicking myself for not using the full cross and not doing more of it,” Joe said.
With 66 acres around the yard, milk quota restrictions and eight teenage children, Joe worked off farm as manager with Eurogene AI Services for 11 years.
Opportunity
In 2015, Joe got the opportunity to rent 104 acres across the road from his farm. With the things that held him back for so long, land and quota, no longer an issue, he rented the farm and set about developing a 200-cow operation. The goal is to milk 220 cows by 2020.
Topless cubicles cost Joe €750 per cow space.
The milking platform is now 63ha with a further 10ha of land for silage. Heifers are contract-reared.
The herd is young, with one-third first lactation and one-third second lactation. Around 66% of the herd is crossbred, but 50% are Jersey crossbred. Some of the purchased cows were Norwegian Red and other crossbreeds.
Jersey crossbred cows on Joe Kirwan's farm.
Milk solids
The target this year is to produce 408kg of milk solids per cow. Last year, the herd produced 421kg of milk solids per cow, but the herd is younger this year having increased from 130 to 195 cows. Meal feeding last year was 630kg/cow.
Malcom Ellis, LIC; Bess Jowsey, LIC; and Joe Kirwan, host farmer.
LIC consultant Bess Jowsey, who is based in Scotland but visits Joe’s farm once a month, says the main challenge on the farm is fertility.
Seventy-two per cent of the cows calved in six weeks this year and the three-week submission rate was 76%; the targets are 90% in both cases.
Bess says that achieving the six-week calving rate of 90% will be central to the farm returning more profit.
World market
LIC manager for New Zealand Malcolm Ellis spoke about changes in the world market and how the demand for dairy products is changing.
He said that 15 years ago the dairy industry in New Zealand predicted that fat would be only worth 6.7% of what protein is worth.
He said that looking at the last GDT auction, butter was actually worth 181% of the value of protein.
Too often, we as farmers live in the here and now and fail to look far enough ahead
While he thinks the current spike in butter won’t be sustained long term, he believes the payment differential for butter will be changed to reflect its current demand in the market, predicting that butter and fat will be paid on a 1:1 basis.
“This has consequences for our breeding strategy. Too often, we as farmers live in the here and now and fail to look far enough ahead. With fat increasing in value, the relative EBI or BW of Jersey crossbred cows is going to increase,” Malcolm said.
Another farm walk will be held next November.
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