Grassland Farmer of the Year

Pallasgreen, Co Limerick

The Barry farm just outside Pallasgreen in east Limerick is undergoing big transformation. A new milking parlour is being built at the moment, but the biggest transformation is happening in the fields.

Sean and his father Pat started reseeding in 2016 and, so far, 80% of the milking platform has been reseeded.

A significant proportion of the farm has been drained also, with gravel mole ploughing being the method of choice on this heavy farm.

The Barrys are milking 70 cows this year, which is a stocking rate on the milking platform of a little under 3.2 cows/ha. The layout of the farm isn’t simple, with the main Waterford to Limerick road splitting the farm on one side and a minor road splitting the farm on the other side.

Since Sean came home to farm full-time in 2017, the focus has been on making incremental improvements in soil fertility, drainage, grazing infrastructure and cow breeding.

Last year, the farm grew 13.7t/ha and the herd of black and white cows produced 485kg MS/cow from 670kg of meal per cow.

I start walking the farm on 8 March, looking for a dry spot to do some on-off grazing

Early spring grazing is a challenge on this farm. In 2019, the cows were out grazing by 6 February because the weather was good. This year was very different and it was 19 March before the cows got out.

“Usually, we target to be out grazing on 10 March. I start walking the farm on 8 March, looking for a dry spot to do some on-off grazing and we could spend a week or two doing that before leaving them out by day and then by night. It all depends on the weather,” Sean says.

One of the tricks Sean has learned over the years is to have good-quality bale silage available for the cows at all times, as cows may have to be housed at any stage. There were 115 round bales made on the milking platform this year.

If they go out grazing full of silage they’ll only be jumping around the place and will make a mess

Another trick he learned is that when silage is being fed, it needs to be pushed away from the cows for a few hours before they go back out grazing.

“If they go out grazing full of silage they’ll only be jumping around the place and will make a mess. They have to be interested in grazing and that way damage will be minimised.”

Soil fertility continues to be a work in progress. The farm is availing of the phosphorus build-up allowance and two rounds of 18:6:12 are spread in spring and 0:7:30 is spread on the silage ground. There was 80t of lime spread last year and Sean plans to spread 60t of lime before the end of this year.

Clover was included in this year’s reseeds, but clover is not present in most of the fields. Sean is happy with how clover is performing and intends to integrate it into the existing paddocks over the coming years. He says that clover needs good soil fertility, so he plans to get soil fertility right first and then look at over-sowing clover.

Dunleer, Co Louth

James is a new entrant to dairy farming, being in his fourth season milking cows. He and his father Jim are milking 380 cows along with tillage. The dairy enterprise replaced a beef enterprise on the farm, which is located just a few miles from the sea.

A staggering 17.8t/ha of grass was grown on the farm in 2019. So far this year, James has grown 15t/ha so is on target for similar total yields to last year.

This is an exceptional performance, but, as James says himself, all the pastures are new, having been sown down in the autumn of 2016.

The main varieties used were Abergain, Aberchoice and Aston Energy and James is also part of the Teagasc monoculture study, so some varieties are sown on their own.

James’s father Jim spreads the fertiliser on the farm, blanket-spreading every 25 days

One of the challenges James is encountering is that the soils are very low in organic matter, having been in tillage for in excess of 30 years prior to the conversion. This means that the soils are low in background nitrogen.

James’s father Jim spreads the fertiliser on the farm, blanket-spreading every 25 days, and James says that he can see the fields going yellow prior to being spread.

The farm is stocked this year at 3.6 cows/ha and James reckons this is the sweet spot on his farm.

There are 105ha in the milking block, with a further 65ha as support ground for youngstock and silage. Surplus grass from the milking platform is cut and gathered up by a forage wagon. First-cut silage is targeted in fields that are high in potash, to maximise yields.

Last year the herd, which is predominately Jersey crossbred, sold 440kg of milk solids per cow from 500kg of meal

All slurry is spread by a contractor using umbilical pipes and a dribble bar. All the fields that are grazed in February are spread with 4,000 gallons/acre of diluted slurry from the lagoon.

Ordinary urea is spread in spring, with protected urea spread thereafter. This year, the Hoeys were following the cows with 30 units/acre of protected urea every 25 days.

Last year the herd, which is predominately Jersey crossbred, sold 440kg of milk solids per cow from 500kg of meal. More meal has been fed this year as the farm suffered from drought in June. James has fed 450kg of meal to date and expects to finish the year with about 650kg of meal fed.

Grazing infrastructure is excellent, with multiple access points to every paddock and large water troughs. When the judges visited last week, the cows were in what James calls his ‘go-to’ paddock.

It’s exceptionally dry and has roadway access on three sides, so he starts grazing there in spring.

There are risers from the main water pipe situated at the top and bottom of the paddock, meaning a mobile water trough can be plumbed in simply and quickly to give cows access to water in spring.

Average farm cover is currently 900kg/ha and the growth rate for last week was 81kg/day. The cows were on 2kg of meal and were milking 16.5l/day at 4.88% fat and 4.06% protein.

Stradone, Co Cavan

Regular readers of the Irish Farmers Journal will be familiar with David Brady, as he was a participant in the first phase of the Dairylink Ireland project. David is farming near Stradone, Co Cavan, on a heavy farm. He has made significant progress over the last few years by focusing on growing and utilising more grass.

A large part of David’s success story revolves around drainage. He is a member of the Teagasc heavy soils programme and has identified that gravel mole ploughing is the most effective way of draining his soils.

The farm grew 13.5t/ha last year and has grown 11t/ha to date this year

The effectiveness of the gravel mole ploughing has been measured at 70%, meaning that 70% of the rain that falls overhead is drained by the gravel moles within 24 hours.

However, this method of drainage isn’t cheap, costing in excess of €4,000/ha. With the increases in grass growth after draining and reseeding the field, David reckons the payback period is just four years.

The farm grew 13.5t/ha last year and has grown 11t/ha to date this year. David expects the herd of mostly black and white cows to deliver over 500kg of milk solids per cow in 2020. There are 47 paddocks on the farm and grazing infrastructure is good, with most paddocks having more than one access point.

Now I’m veering more towards tetraploids as they are easier to graze

On picking grass varieties, David says his opinion on the best varieties for his soil type has changed.

“When we started reseeding first, I was looking at varieties which had a dense sward and would have used a lot of varieties like Glenveagh. But I found that they were harder to graze out if things went wrong. Now I’m veering more towards tetraploids as they are easier to graze. I use a minimum of 30% tetraploid and up to 70% at times using varieties at the top of the PPI.”

At the moment, the average farm cover is 808kg/ha, which is behind the target for this week of 950kg/ha, but the farm is currently growing well, at over 60kg/day, and the demand is low at 37kg/day with 2kg of meal included. With his soil type, David is slow to go over an average farm cover of 1,000kg/ha, but with the milking platform stocked at 2.5 cows/ha his grass budget is targeting a peak of 980kg/ha.