Milking 150 cows on a 210 acre farm at Bulgaden near Kilmallock in Co Limerick the Fox family are making fierce progress.

They got the opportunity to buy two blocks of land last year and are well set up for the future. It’s a family affair with John, Mary and Ian farming alongside each other and performance is high with over 14t of grass grown annually.

Ian returned home to farm alongside his parents six or seven years ago, after initially studying mechanical engineering in LIT before going on to do the green cert in Clonakilty Agricultural College.

Both John and Ian are mechanically minded with lots of nifty gadgets and labour-saving devices around the farm, including a calf feeder that goes on the front loader that can feed calves in a shed or the field.

It’s not just at welding that the Foxs excel. The herd is well bred with an EBI of €231 and up to the end of May this year was in the top 10% of Kerry suppliers with 180kg MS/cow produced with an SCC of 95,000.

The 30 teat calf feeder is hooked on to the front loader and can be dropped into the pen or into the field the calves are in. It was made by John Fox.

Calving starts on 1 February and the six-week calving rate was 83% last year. Ian says that fertility seems to be going well this year after getting a 97% submission rate inside the first three weeks.

He starts tail-painting for pre-breeding heat detection in early April and any cow not seen bulling will be scanned by the vet.

Ian also says that they might have 20 to 30 cows on once-a-day milking at the end of March if they need extra care such as low body condition score or cows that have had twins, etc. They typically have a 10% empty rate.

Ian and John are responsible for grassland management, with Ian doing the measuring and John doing the allocations. Cows are allocated fresh grass at every milking but only clean out the paddock at every second or third grazing. They have invested in spur roads and put in additional gaps to improve access to paddocks.

Clover has been included in all of the recent reseeds and this has been working really well for the Foxs.

When the judges visited in early July the clover swards were beginning to take off and Ian was already cutting back on the nitrogen to just nine units/acre, plus 0:7:30 and parlour washings.

The Foxs also planted a small reed bed last year in a stream near the farm yard that takes some of the grey water off the yard before it enters a watercourse. This has been planted with reeds and alder trees.

Key stats

  • The Fox family are milking 150 cows near Bulgaden in Co Limerick.
  • The farm is run by Mary, John and Ian Fox with part-time help.
  • There is a big emphasis on attention to detail with really good clover contents on all of the recently reseeded fields.
  • Grazing infrastructure is excellent and cows get out to grass in early spring on the drier fields.
  • A reed bed has been installed to help purify the grey water running off the farmyard.