Mention once-a-day milking (OAD), and thoughts immediately turn back to the last years of the quota era, when cows were routinely milked in the autumn and spring once a day to curb milk supply, in a last-ditch effort to avoid or to minimise a superlevy fine. A lot has been made of this new, post-quota era – plenty of column inches have attempted to define what it means for Irish farmers. OAD milking is referred to in the past tense. But is it confined to the past, or is it going to grow, in spite of the removal of milk quotas?

Over the last few months I have learned of a new movement in Irish agriculture.

This is a group of 25 dairy farmers who meet up every few months and discuss their production figures, grass growth, the weather, milk prices, etc. Hardly anything new there, you might say, but these farmers are all milking their cows once a day.

What makes this group unique is that they are driven from the ground up – not by a feed sales company, or a milk processor or somebody selling robots or zero grazers – all of whom have vested interests.

Instead, this is a group that have somehow come together from all parts of Ireland, using the internet to share ideas, distribute information and organise meetings. It’s almost like the Arab Spring but for Irish dairy farmers. Teagasc advisor Brian Hilliard has been recruited to facilitate the meetings.

Passion

One of the most passionate exponents of OAD milking is Donal O’Loughlin from Ballymacarbery, on the Tipperary side of the Waterford/Tipperary border. Passion is something that must run in the O’Loughlin veins as his brother Seamus is stone mad about genetics and dairy cow breeding.

Donal explains that when Seamus was 15 he became fascinated with AI and cow families and started to make all the breeding decisions on the farm. The two were farming together with their father Dan up until 1999, milking 80 cows in an all year round liquid milk system, supplying liquid milk to the then Avonmore Co-Op.

Seamus wasn’t happy with the bulls that were available in Ireland at the time so he used to load up his old Volkswagen Golf van with AI flasks and drive over to Holland every couple of months and fill the flasks with bulls of his liking, to be used on the home farm but also on neighbouring farms, who by now were relying totally on Seamus’s breeding advice.

Of course, this was a breach of the rules and after an investigation by the Department of Agriculture he was no longer going to Holland for bulls!

Back in the 1990’s, the O’Loughlin home farm consisted of 40 hectares of good quality land, facing north at the foot of a hill, overlooking some of the finest dairy and arable land in the world. The 15 hectare outfarm was used for heifer rearing and growing maize to feed the high yielding Holstein Friesians.

During this decade, land further up the hill started to become available to lease as farmers retired without successors so more land and quota became available to the O’Loughlin’s. But accessing this land meant that cows had to walk up the hill.

Donal says: “The cows were getting wrecked going up and down the hill. The big Holsteins that we had at the time just couldn’t hack it so Seamus began to experiment with Swedish Reds so we were one of the first farmers in the area to go crossbreeding and we were delighted with the results.”

By 1999, Seamus had moved on to pursue a career in engineering, but he still retains a huge interest in breeding, still picking the bulls to go on each cow. “I text Seamus each morning with the numbers of the cows bulling, he then logs on to Herdplus before going to work, checks the cow’s ancestry and production and picks a bull to suit and texts me back with it. Sometimes he rings me and asks me what the cow is like, particularly around the udder and teat placement.” Donal explains.

High EBI

For a number of years during the mid-2000’s the O’Loughlin’s had the highest EBI herd in the country. At the moment they are at number 13 with an EBI of €216.

When I visited Donal in early October, he told me that within three years he plans to be stocked at 2.7 cows per hectare, milking 200 cows, with 1.25 labour units, producing 450kg of milk solids (MS) per cow, from cows weighing 450kg and being fed 150kg of meal and having a 10% replacement rate. While being milked once a day.

Is this sort of production system possible or are the O’Loughlin’s, and others, fantasising?

Let’s look at the historical performance of the herd. Back in 2011, the herd was milked twice a day until September and produced 399kg MS/cow with 10% of the herd first calvers. In 2012, because of quota implications, the herd was milked OAD from the spring. That year, production dropped to 336kg MS/cow, but, 35% of the herd were heifers.

In 2013, the herd produced 378kg MS/cow and in 2014 they produced 387kg MS/cow. This year, the herd is on target to deliver to 400kgMS/cow to Glanbia. In 2011, 415kg of meal was fed per cow. This year, 180kg of meal will be fed. In 2011, 65% of the herd calved in the month of February but this year, 87% calved in February.

Over this time, cow numbers increased from 112 being milked in 2011 to 150 being milked in 2015. No cows were bought in over this period, in fact, 20 surplus cows, including in-calf heifers were sold each year on average over the four years. Stocking rate has remained more or less the same as heifers were contract reared in 2015 which reduced the stocking rate for this year.

So how has production per cow increased?

Donal says it’s all down to genetics. Using trial data from New Zealand which shows that Jersey crossbred cows have a lower reduction in yield, and thus are more suited to OAD the O’Loughlin’s are striving to breed a cow that is at least 50% Jersey. They have been using Jersey sires on their Swedish Red cross Holstein Friesian cows for the past ten years, and at present, the majority of the herd are 50% Jersey, 25% Swedish Red and 25% Friesian.

For the past couple of seasons they have been using Kiwicross sires. Again, this is where Seamus comes into his own, identifying good bulls before everyone else. For example, they have a number of Solaris daughters milking in the herd and have purchased a sizeable quantity of his straws. Now, Solaris is one of the most sought after bulls in New Zealand and he can’t be got in Ireland for love nor money.

So the cow breed is one thing – Jerseys have higher solids percentage and lower volume of milk so are more suitable to being milked once a day as their percentage decline in solids is less than that of a Friesian. What about survival and longevity? Fertility performance on the O’Loughlin farm was good before the cows went on OAD. Empty rate in 2011 was 7% and 81% calved in six weeks.

But yet, fertility has still dramatically improved since going on OAD. This year, there was 2% of the herd empty and six week calving rate is 95%. Calving interval will be 362 days, so there will be a 1.01 calves/cow/year and 95% of the herd is expected to calve in the first six weeks next spring. The excellent fertility performance has enabled Donal to cull cows not suitable to OAD milking. Culling is probably the wrong word, selective selling describes the process better.

“There are some cows that are just not suited to OAD and that is a fact. In the early years we had a lot more than we have now. What tends to happen is they begin to dry themselves off half way through the season and put on lots of body condition. There’s nothing wrong with these cows but they are just not suited to OAD so we will sell them over the winter to farmers milking twice a day and they get on grand in that system. About 30 cows have been sold in this way.” Says Donal.

So replacement rate in the first two years was high, but, unlike in the case of selling empty cows, Donal was selling good, in-calf cows which realised the same value or more than the cost of rearing a replacement heifer. Indeed, replacement rate this year was also high as the herd increased in size, 30% are heifers.

Normally, we would assume that with a high replacement rate the output per cow will drop, but this may not always be the case in OAD herds, as Donal explained: “We were replacing poor performing cows with heifers that in many cases produced as much or more milk than the cows they were replacing, simply because they were more suited to OAD milking.”

On top of this, the cows that were performing well on OAD were maturing and as cows mature they produce more milk solids. Plus, more of the herd were calving together, earlier in the season so lactations were getting longer and were closer aligned to the grass growth curve, meaning more milk was produced off grass, meaning fat and protein concentrations and kilos of milk solids increased further. Donal expects that over the coming years, as the herd matures they will be delivering 450kg MS/cow. Milk replacer is going to be fed next spring.

Replicable

How replicable is the O’Loughlin system? OK, Seamus’s passion and interest in breeding is unique and unmatched but hardly necessary for the system to be a success. We know that Jersey crossbred cows with good udder attachment and normal teat placement are most suited to OAD milking.

The big question I have is around the stocking rate. At the moment, Donal’s milking platform extends to 76 hectares and with 150 cows milked this year, stocking rate is only 1.97 cows per hectare. Of course, it must be pointed out that half of the farm is more than 500 feet above sea level. The furthest paddock is 1.3km away but more importantly, it is 800 feet higher than the milking parlour! When I visited in early October the cows were grazing the highest part of the farm. The next field was heather commonage.

Also, the stocking rate dropped this year as the heifers were contract reared for the first time. The low stocking rate is reflected in the inputs, with 160 units of nitrogen spread per acre and only 180kg of meal fed in 2015. Much of the rented land uphill needs to be reseeded. When at 200 cows, the farm will be stocked at 2.63 cows per hectare. I asked Donal if there was scope to push this further.

“Of course it’s possible. By reseeding more of the farm I will definitely grow more grass. There’s also a good bit of P and K and lime to go out. The potential is definitely there but I’m not sure I want to milk more than 200 cows. At the moment it’s a nice fit. I’ve a 16 unit parlour and enough cubicles. I get a local man to help me for February and March and he does one day a week for the rest of the year. I have a nice balance between the farm and family life at the moment and I’m slow to change it.”

Opinions

Donal says he was the talk of the parish when he went once a day in 2012. “I considered going back to twice a day milking last April but why would I? I don’t mind what people are thinking anymore. They can think I’m lazy all they like, at the end of the day I have a system that works for me. Once I can keep my costs down, I know the farm can make as much money as any other. I’ve a young family and I’m chairman of the GAA club. I’m enjoying life and making money.”

On the issue of costs, Table 1 shows a breakdown of some of the big cost items in 2011, when Donal was milking twice a day and in 2015, four years into OAD. While not a full breakdown of all costs, it does show that many of the costs, particularly meal, labour, vet and electricity costs have fallen. Gross output has remained steady, bolstered by increased stock sales as outstanding fertility has meant that the farm, even though it is expanding, still has surplus stock to sell.

While the total volume of milk being sold per cow has dropped, the fat and protein component has increased so each litre is now more valuable. Donal received 38c/l for his October milked. The farm has recently gone into a company structure.

Comment

What is profit? Is it knowing you have milked your cows twice a day every day all your life? Or is it the difference between income and costs? Many will scoff at the notion of milking once a day, failing to overcome the mind-set of not getting the full production potential out of the cow, but also failing to recognise that costs can be greatly reduced when on once a day. Donal O’Loughlin says he is making more money now than when he was on twice a day, this message is being echoed by many more OAD farmers both in Ireland and in New Zealand.

Profit equals total income minus total costs.

Aside from this, what about the other benefits? Lower labour requirement, more time off, better lifestyle and an ability to spend more time at other profitable activities e.g. running a second farm or working off farm.

For me, success of the system is hinged on having the right cow and having the courage to cut costs. The science is moving on, there are now bulls available in New Zealand that are bred to suit OAD systems. This will make bull selection easier in the future.

The biggest barrier is probably going to be mind-set. It amazes me that many farmers will consider spending hundreds of thousands installing a depreciating robot to take the drudgery out of milking cows, when OAD milking could be used instead and be more profitable with no investments. I think OAD milking will be a growing feature of Ireland’s dairy industry in this new era.