Grassland Farmer of the Year: meet the finalists

The Grassland Farmer of the Year competition is part of the Grass 10 programme. The purpose of the competition is to reward farmers for achieving excellence in grassland management.

Finalists are selected from a number of categories – dairy, beef, sheep, heavy soils and young farmer. Farms are selected for a visit by the judges based on total tonnage grown per hectare, number of grazings and number of grass measures.

Judges

The judges for 2020 represent the Grass 10 programme sponsors. These are Liz Hyland from the Department of Agriculture; John Maher of Teagasc; Ciaran Roche of FBD Insurance; Bryan Doocey of AIB; PJ O’Connor of Grassland Agro; and Aidan Brennan of the Irish Farmers Journal.

The judges rank the farms on a number of criteria – grassland management, sustainability, soil fertility, grazing infrastructure and reseeding policy.

Three finalists have already been featured. The remaining contestants will be profiled over the coming weeks.

Piltown, Co Kilkenny

Farming at between 900ft and 1,000ft above sea level, this dairy farmer is no stranger to heights. Since taking over the farm in 2014, Shane has invested heavily in infrastructure and building up the dairy herd to the current level of 88 cows. Roadways, fencing and water infrastructure are all top class. New parlour and cow housing means that the farm is not labour intensive, allowing Shane to work full-time off farm for a feed company.

Feeding rates are high on this farm, at over 1.8t of meal per cow last year, although it is likely to be a bit lower in 2020.

“I fed a lot of meal in 2018 and saw how well the cows milked, so I kept it up ever since,” Shane says.

There is no doubt that milk production is high, with 655kg of milk solids produced per cow in 2019. Cows are rarely fed anything less than 6kg of meal all through lactation, although on the day of the judges’ visit the herd was on 5kg of meal along with 2kg of silage. The herd is mostly Holstein Friesian.

The overall stocking rate is high at 2.92 livestock units per hectare. Grass growth is good at 15.7t DM/ha grown in 2019

Two-thirds of the silage required for the winter is bought in – he makes about 300 round bales and buys in around 600 bales. The milking platform extends to 25ha, so the stocking rate is currently 3.6 cows/ha. Heifer calves are contract-reared, but yearling heifers are reared on a 13ha rented block. No silage is produced from this land so all the winter feed is either grown on the platform or bought in.

The overall stocking rate is high at 2.92 livestock units per hectare. Grass growth is good at 15.7t DM/ha grown in 2019, with 10.3 grazings achieved. Shane walks the farm regularly, recording 40 measurements in 2019.

At this stage, 83% of the milking block has been reseeded since 2014, with Shane opting for grass mixtures such as Germinal Top 5 Extend and Goldcrop high-digestibility mixtures. Clover has been sown in every mixture, but actual clover content is currently not that high, but he feels it is something he will work on in future years.

Fertiliser is blanket-spread once a month by a contractor, with contractors doing all the slurry and silage work also. Every paddock on the farm was either cut for bales or pre-mowed at least once to improve grass quality. Shane intends to have 70% of the farm grazed by the end of October, with the herd fully housed by mid-November.

Dunmanway, Co Cork

The Galvin farm near Dunmanway in west Cork was glistening in the autumn sun last week. John and his wife Yvonne are milking 105 cows on their 35ha milking block. The plan is to get the heifers contract-reared and milk 110 cows next year, which will be a stocking rate of just over 3.1 cows/ha. At that stage the focus will just be on cows and grass.

If the weather is any bit tricky, the cows go back to the shed after morning milking without access to silage

This focus is really evident when it comes to looking at performance. Last year, the farm grew 15.7t DM/ha, with an average of 8.9 grazings over the course of the year. John describes the farm as being sunny and early, and even though it is nestled between mountains and bog, most of the land is light, so it dries out quickly.

That said, early spring grazing can be very challenging, but John works hard to get cows out to grass whenever possible.

“If the weather is any bit tricky, the cows go back to the shed after morning milking without access to silage. We feed the calves and get our own breakfast and then I go and try to find a place to put the cows for the day. I have my go-to spots and if they’re suitable I’ll put up a wire and send them there. If not I’ll leave them in the shed and push in silage. Delaying the decision to 10am means I have more time to focus on it,” John says.

He keeps a record of grazings in spring and 2019 was a dream spring with just six grazings missed. This February was more challenging, with 15 of the 28 days too wet to graze.

Cow performance is excellent. The herd sold 511kg MS/cow to Dairygold Co-op in 2019. This year the herd is on track to do 520kgMS/cow from 750kg of meal per cow. The herd is all Jersey crossbred, producing high-value milk.

Average farm cover is currently 1,053kg/ha and John plans to have 700kg/ha on the farm at 1 December to open at 1,150kg/ha on 1 February

John is making a conscious effort to reduce his environmental footprint. He’s a member of the Caha River Project, which is an ASSAP river and home to freshwater pearl mussels. He’s a member of GLAS, all slurry is spread with a trailing shoe and protected urea is used for most of the year. Just 10% of the 250kg N/ha that John applies is straight CAN. There is some clover on the farm, but getting more established is one of his goals. Nitrogen use efficiency is currently at 23%, but John is aiming for 30%.

Last week, the herd was producing 15l at 5.55% fat and 4.46% protein, which is 1.55kg MS/cow while on 2kg of meal. Average farm cover is currently 1,053kg/ha and John plans to have 700kg/ha on the farm at 1 December to open at 1,150kg/ha on 1 February.

Ballinascarthy, Co Cork

Caroline has been a dairy farmer since 2010, originally on a leased farm at Ballinadee, but has been farming in Ballinascarthy since 2015. Caroline’s husband Joe, along with his father and brother run an agricultural contracting outfit from the yard at Ballinascarthy and previously used the farm for rearing cattle.

Caroline looks after the dairy enterprise, with help from the tractor men during the busy periods on the dairy farm. Cows calve a bit earlier here than on other farms, so that the heavy work is out of the way before the contracting work gets busy. Calving start date is 14 January.

She milked 72 cows in 2020, but plans to reduce this to 64 cows in 2021. There are 20ha in the milking platform, so the stocking rate this year was 3.6 cows/ha and the stocking rate next year will be 3.2 cows/ha. Heifers are mostly contract-reared and silage comes in from three small outfarms.

The Walsh family are busy between dairying, contracting and looking after their five children

There were 80 cows milked on the farm in 2017, but since reducing cow numbers Caroline says the farm has made more profit. She reckons that milk solids sold from the farm won’t change, but that less meal and less fertiliser will be purchased and the farm will be easier to manage.

The Walsh family are busy between dairying, contracting and looking after their five children. Grass is to the fore of their system. Caroline took up measuring in 2015 out of necessity – the high stocking rate she had in Ballinadee wasn’t as easy to run in Ballinascarthy. They have invested heavily in grazing infrastructure – improving roadways, water, fencing, reseeding and drainage.

There are multiple access points to every paddock, meaning Caroline can get grass into cows most days from February to mid-November. Last year, the farm grew 16.3t DM/ha and achieved 10.7 grazings on average. The herd produced 470kg MS/cow last year from 1.1t of meal per cow.

The EBI of the herd is high at €186 on average, making it one of the highest EBI herds in the country

Up to 4 October this year, the herd has delivered 460kg MS/cow, so they will produce over 500kg MS in 2020 from 850kg of meal per cow. Cull cows and empty cows were sold in mid-August to give more grass to the remaining herd.

The EBI of the herd is high at €186 on average, making it one of the highest EBI herds in the country. Not only is Caroline good at grass management, she is also good at breeding, with many of her bull calves in high demand among the AI stations. The average weight of all the cows is 530kg, with 44% of the herd in first and second lactation.