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The extended Power family with the Quality Milk judges.
Tom and Moya with kids and to the left Tom’s parents Jim
and Breda. To the right standing behind Tom and Moya is Jerry Cronin, Glanbia and on the left is Maria Scanlan from
Glanbia.
When we called, a new slurry tank had been poured and plans were at an advanced stage for installing 180 cubicles.
The crush and handling unit next to
the Powers’ milking parlour.
Tom and Moya milk in a 20-unit herringbone parlour.
Some of the Powers’ land is over
800ft above sea level.
You climb uphill to the Power farm and once you see the nice, neat front wall of the dairy with hanging baskets for the flowers you know you have arrived. When you look around the corner you are up close and personal with wind turbines belonging to a neighbouring farm. Looking around, farm visitors quickly get an idea of the height above sea level and the distant views of Dungarvan Bay also confirm that the Power farm is up to 800ft above sea level, bringing with it unique challenges from wind and inclement weather.
In 2015, the Power farm milked 200 cows and delivered 1.18m litres of milk to Glanbia. Total area farmed is 125ha, with 65ha available for grazing around the milking parlour. This year, the Powers are milking 220 cows with a grand plan to milk 250 cows once wintering facilities are in place. When we called, a new slurry tank had been poured and plans were at an advanced stage for installing 180 cubicles. This will allow existing cubicle space be converted into calving pens.
Tom’s father Jim started milking cows in the late 1970s and in 1998 Tom came home to farm after a year in Ag College and a year in New Zealand. Since then, the Power farm has gradually increased in scale by purchasing quota and developing infrastructure around the farm. In 2009 the parlour was extended from 16 to 20 units and by 2010 they were milking 160 cows.
Tom’s ethos is that the farm must be sustainable, profitable, and enjoyable. Tom is the fifth generation to farm here at Cappagh. Tom and Moya Power run the business and they are assisted every step of the way by Tom’s parents Jim and Breda and first cousin Shane.
In terms of milk quality, Tom can remember clearly when the importance of monitoring cell count clicked for him. In 2007 he was just back from a family wedding that had turned into a holiday in the sun and he was very close to home when he got a call from his vet who had been looking at milk recording records which showed a large proportion of the herd over 500,000 in cell count.
This phone call jolted Tom into an investigation and he quickly established there were a number of issues with the milking routine that were wrong. The reality was 100 of the 120 cows milking had a cell count over 150,000 cells/ml at the time. It was towards the back end of lactation, but there were still too many cows with high cell count. Today, milking 220 cows, Tom said about 20 cows would have a cell count over 150,000 cells/ml at the same stage in lactation.
Factfile
Farming system: in 2015 the Power business milked 200 cows delivering 1.18m litres to Glanbia Co-op in a spring-calving production system. In total the Power family are farming 124ha (305 acres). Milk fat averaged 4.43% and protein percentage averaged 3.67% in 2015.
You climb uphill to the Power farm and once you see the nice, neat front wall of the dairy with hanging baskets for the flowers you know you have arrived. When you look around the corner you are up close and personal with wind turbines belonging to a neighbouring farm. Looking around, farm visitors quickly get an idea of the height above sea level and the distant views of Dungarvan Bay also confirm that the Power farm is up to 800ft above sea level, bringing with it unique challenges from wind and inclement weather.
In 2015, the Power farm milked 200 cows and delivered 1.18m litres of milk to Glanbia. Total area farmed is 125ha, with 65ha available for grazing around the milking parlour. This year, the Powers are milking 220 cows with a grand plan to milk 250 cows once wintering facilities are in place. When we called, a new slurry tank had been poured and plans were at an advanced stage for installing 180 cubicles. This will allow existing cubicle space be converted into calving pens.
Tom’s father Jim started milking cows in the late 1970s and in 1998 Tom came home to farm after a year in Ag College and a year in New Zealand. Since then, the Power farm has gradually increased in scale by purchasing quota and developing infrastructure around the farm. In 2009 the parlour was extended from 16 to 20 units and by 2010 they were milking 160 cows.
Tom’s ethos is that the farm must be sustainable, profitable, and enjoyable. Tom is the fifth generation to farm here at Cappagh. Tom and Moya Power run the business and they are assisted every step of the way by Tom’s parents Jim and Breda and first cousin Shane.
In terms of milk quality, Tom can remember clearly when the importance of monitoring cell count clicked for him. In 2007 he was just back from a family wedding that had turned into a holiday in the sun and he was very close to home when he got a call from his vet who had been looking at milk recording records which showed a large proportion of the herd over 500,000 in cell count.
This phone call jolted Tom into an investigation and he quickly established there were a number of issues with the milking routine that were wrong. The reality was 100 of the 120 cows milking had a cell count over 150,000 cells/ml at the time. It was towards the back end of lactation, but there were still too many cows with high cell count. Today, milking 220 cows, Tom said about 20 cows would have a cell count over 150,000 cells/ml at the same stage in lactation.
Factfile
Farming system: in 2015 the Power business milked 200 cows delivering 1.18m litres to Glanbia Co-op in a spring-calving production system. In total the Power family are farming 124ha (305 acres). Milk fat averaged 4.43% and protein percentage averaged 3.67% in 2015.
This year 13 farming families compete for the Overall title in the NDC/Kerrygold quality milk awards.
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In terms of milk quality, Tom can remember clearly when the importance of monitoring cell count clicked for him. In 2007 he was just back from a family wedding that had turned into a holiday in the sun and he was very close to home when he got a call from his vet who had been looking at milk recording records which showed a large proportion of the herd over 500,000 in cell count. 
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