I farm: “207ac on a grazing platform and we rent a further 40ac as an out-block. I farm with my wife Pamela, twin sons Conor and Shea, we get help and advice from my parents Maynard and Margaret, and we have a Brazilian lad, Lucas, working with us.”

Cows: “It’s a spring system, with 250 cows. The last time we did winter milk was 2017, and that’s purely because extra ground came to us and helped us simplify our system while increasing numbers. We came from a Holstein Friesian herd and we used purebred Jersey AI in 2017 for three to four years, one cross only, and back to high EBI ‘black and white’. We got a great response from that for robustness.”

Milking: “In the co-op, we’re probably getting in the top 98% fat and protein percentages. Our milking parlour system is a 24-unit Fullwood herringbone. It’s an Afimilk system that we put in initially, because of our focus on heat detection, and we were in winter milk at the time and it was a huge facility for us.”

Awards: “It’s an out-and-out privilege. We were nominated in 2011 through Bandon Co-op and it was a fantastic experience to be out there. This time, any one of the farmers could have taken the prize home; there were others who weren’t in the room that could’ve won, we can see it across the country, the standards are so high. The beauty of the awards is that once you’re in, there’s a 10-year lapse before you can go again.”

Technology: “We have a 320-cubicle house for 250 cows plus the few heifers that come in. We put in a lot of in-calving facilities: calf sheds, automatic calf feeders, and the parlour is fully computerised. I did that in the earlier years purely to get the full benefit. For me, there’s no point in me putting all this infrastructure in when I’m 50 years plus.”