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I farm: “In partnership with my father Lawrence. We are milking 80 cows on a 60ac milking platform. The ground has dry, shallow, brown earth soil. We also have 60 acres of forestry.”
Family: “We used to run a suckler herd but I went down the dairy route three years ago when dad took a step back from the farm. My mother Brigid does a lot of paperwork and accounting.”
Cows: “We have all high EBI Friesian cows, crossbred – about 70% Holstein and 30% British Friesian. There is also a bit of Norwegian Red in there. We artificially inseminate most of the cows in April and use Angus and Friesian bulls for the rest.”
Building: “I started off milking three years ago with 50 heifers which I reared myself and have increased cow numbers to 80 this year. The oldest cows are only in their third lactation, so I have yet to meet my target yields.”
Fodder: “Last year was a huge learning curve but we managed. I bought in fodder early as I knew with our dry land the grass would burn up fairly quickly. At the time of the drought, my cows were only on their second lactation so having silage to feed them was important to keep up milk yields.”
This week: “Calving is well under way with 10 cows calving down last week so we will be busy with calving over the next few weeks. We’ll spread urea on the grazing platform and put slurry out on the silage ground.”
Future plans: “I plan to put in a feed store and a new 40-cubicle slatted shed in the next year or two. We milk the cows on a 10-unit Dairymaster parlour but has capacity for an additional 10 units. In terms of cow numbers, I am happy enough with what I have for the moment. I’m just focusing on improving breeding and getting the right infrastructure in place before I start thinking of expanding herd size.”
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