Up until 2009, Peter Hamm was working off farm in the construction industry – running his own plastering business with eight full-time employees while managing his 25 cow suckler enterprise on his farm near Mount Temple in Westmeath in his spare time.The economic recession changed everything – the building business went in 2009 and the suckler herd went in 2013. But they didn’t go to fund cashflow, Peter reinvested in dairy heifers.
Up until 2009, Peter Hamm was working off farm in the construction industry – running his own plastering business with eight full-time employees while managing his 25 cow suckler enterprise on his farm near Mount Temple in Westmeath in his spare time.
The economic recession changed everything – the building business went in 2009 and the suckler herd went in 2013. But they didn’t go to fund cashflow, Peter reinvested in dairy heifers.
With 40 acres around the parlour, Peter decided that milking 40 cows would provide a better income than the 25 sucklers.
“I could’ve got a job in a factory and work nine to five, but it’s not who I am. I like what I do,” he told the crowd during the tour of his farm.
He bought 30 cows to calve down in 2014, but three of them slipped a calf that winter. He said it was a ‘catastrophe’ at the time.
Cow numbers increased steadily as the farm grew in size after neighbouring land was leased. Today, there are 106 cows milking.
Development
The development of the farm has never stopped and Peter says this is eating into cash. Money was scarce at the start so all the original milking facilities, including the shed and bulk tank, were purchased second hand for €12,000.
The original six-unit parlour was extended to 10 in 2018. A new 20-unit parlour is planned for next year.
There are now 48 hectares in the milking block. There are 32 in-calf heifers on the farm and 43 heifer calves.
Peter hopes to increase cow numbers to between 120 and 140 over the coming years, which will mean some or all of the heifers will have to be contract reared.
Growth
The key message from the Peter was that it is possible to build and grow a dairy enterprise on a relatively small block of land, but that cash is tight in the first few years.
Peter says he sacrificed having good soil fertility, good grazing infrastructure and milking facilities in order to get going.
However, John Hardy, the local Teagasc advisor says Peter bought good cows from day one, and these are standing to him now.
Last year, the herd produced 539kg MS/cow from 1,200kg of meal, but the herd is normally fed 700 to 800kg of meal. The herd produced 523kg MS/cow in 2017.
The herd is black and white and Peter has decided not to do any crossbreeding: "I was told before that whether you sell milk or matches the trick is to sell a lot of it, I like having milk in my cows.”
His breeding policy is to breed with Holstein Friesian AI for the whole breeding season.
“I put Friesian on everything, if I could put the dog in-calf to Friesian I would too” he joked.
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