Cork farmer switches from beef and tillage farming to dairying

Cork farmer Scott Kingston is switching half of his family’s farm from beef and tillage to dairy.

A road splits the Bandon farm in half and plans are under way to convert one half of the farm into a dairy enterprise.

His father Roy Kingston will be sticking with the beef and tillage enterprise on the other half of the farm.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Scott Kingston said he has already bought in 175 heifers. “They’re all crossbreds and every calf next year will be crossed.”

The heifers were artificially inseminated recently with Jersey straws and crossbred straws, then two bulls were used to mop up the repeats. After that, the empties were artificially inseminated again, according to Kingston.

The herd will be spring-calving.

Kingston plans on having a big focus on grass as part of his new dairying enterprise: “Ireland is best at growing grass and we want to utilise as much of it as we can.”

The milk produced on the farm will supply Bandon Co-op, he said.

Kingston will have a 69ha milking platform for his dairy enterprise and is halfway through building a 24-unit herringbone parlour.

There is already some infrastructure in place on the farm from the beef and tillage operation.

“We have a slatted unit already from the beef. We also have grain sheds which I’ll convert into calving pens.”

“The maximum amount of cows we can hold is 230. We’ll aim to hit that by this time next year. Replacements will be taken off the dairy platform and put on grass on the beef and tillage side of the farm.”

So, why has Kingston decided to swap enterprises? Simply because there’s more money to be made in it, he said, and he likes the work too.

He went to Clonakilty Agricultural College, then moved up to Cork Institute of Technology and spent three months placement on a dairy farm.

Since then he’s been working on a number of farms and now has decided to take the leap into having his own enterprise.

Kingston himself will be full-time on the farm and the family farm has a worker employed who will help out on his enterprise.

“I’m hoping to get a student in as well. Labour will be something we’ll struggle with; it’s a problem down here.”