With hundreds of farmers descending on the Power farm walk last week, it quickly became apparent that this host farmer had lots to share with his fellow colleagues. The Power family farm business, operated by Tom and Moya Power, went on display last week aided and supported by Tom’s father Jim and his wife Brid.
The standout message from the first stand at the open day was the current milk performance – the herd is milking 24.25 litres at 4.26% fat and 3.53% protein (1.95kg MS) on 1.5kg of meal with TBC at 4,000 CFU/ml and SCC at 66,000 cells/ml. Top-class performance for a spring-calving herd that started calving in mid-January.
The Power cows have a great view of the Cappagh Dungarvan countryside, with the farm starting at 100ft above sea level, with land rising all the way to 800ft above sea level so that the cows are grazing right up beside neighbouring windmills. The farmyard and paddocks are so close to the windmills you can clearly hear the swish as the blades move through the Waterford mountain air.
What about the future? Tom has plans and young stock on the ground to bring more Jersey crossbred genetics into the herd and further increase milk solids.
At the moment, the farm is producing about 1,210kg of milk solids per hectare stocked at 2.5 cows/hectare. The milk quality results are no flash in the pan. The 2016 average values were also on the first board and they show the average TBC for 2016 was 4,000 and the average SCC was 76,000 cells/ml with a fat percentage of 4.40% and protein of 3.60%.
The booklet had further results and it showed the TBC and SCC results have gradually been improving as herd numbers increased – the opposite to what normally happens on expanding farms.
Hand over at a young age
Tom’s father Jim Power was present on the second stand and the focus at this board was succession planning. Jim spoke very clearly about the fact he was young when he inherited the home farm and he felt it was important to clear up the succession piece when Tom was also young.
Jim said: “Tom went away for a year after ag college – he went to New Zealand for nine months and Sydney for three months and it was the best education, because he soon found out about working for someone else.
“When he came home, we transferred half the farm with a planned transfer of the rest and Tom got a salary similar to colleagues working in other industries, so he could stand on his own two feet.”
Jim explained he was 25 when he inherited the farm and Tom was 26 when he inherited from Jim, so it meant everyone was clear about what was happening.
Since growing the herd, the Power business employed Shane Flavin full-time on the farm and Jim explained that employing someone full-time has also greatly helped the business and allowed him spend time with grandchildren and pursue other interests.
Between the three of them, they operate a weekend off and on policy. The typical day starts at 6am and the yard is finished for 5.30pm, with contractors completing the silage and slurry. Remember, there are a lot of stock in this business with 234 milking, 74 replacement heifers and 67 heifer calves alongside 50 LU of drystock grazed on land away from the farmyard.
Are the Powers making money?
The information presented on the boards at the open day suggested each cow brought in €1,750 in terms of gross output last year.
Approximately €600 of this went on variable costs, €470 on fixed costs, so that left €662 before own labour and taxes, etc. If you assume €370/cow on own labour, it leaves about €300/cow profit after adjustment.
Climate change and cows
The third stand at the farm walk dealt with the issue of dairy farming and climate change. Glanbia’s Anne Browne and Teagasc researcher Donal O’Brien explained the only way to improve dairy farming’s relationship with the environment is to do things better, more efficiently.
Spread slurry in the spring, not in the summer, aim for higher EBI cows, use protected urea if spreading bag fertiliser and keep cows as long as possible at grass. Anne explained that customers want to know the carbon footprint of milk, which effectively means they want to know the greenhouse gas per unit of product.
Anne and Donal presented figures which suggest the average 60-cow dairy farm produces the equivalent greenhouse gas of 110 cars or 310t of carbon dioxide. This is in the form of methane from slurry, etc (equivalent 65 cars), carbon dioxide from fertiliser and urine (equivalent to 40 cars) and the equivalent of five cars in terms of machinery (tractors, etc).
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