I farm: “A 200ac dairy cow herd in Co Waterford. It’s myself, my brother Liam, my sister Michelle, and parents Michael and Laura.”

Cows: “We’re milking 120 Holstein Friesians with a small few pedigree dairy Shorthorns through them. The Friesians have a very good will to milk, but they also have a cull cow value when she comes to the end of her life and the bull calf is valuable as well so you get them from both sides. The six Shorthorns, they’re something special. We got them from the Ballyshane herd in Limerick as an interest. They produce lovely colours through the herd and they’re as good as the Friesians after the second lactation. Also, they’ve very good fertility and they’re hardy, with serious longevity to them.”

Milking: “We’ve a 16-unit parlour and over 160 cubicles that we have the cows on. We keep the maiden heifers on cubicles as well to train them. We produce 540kg of milk solids.”

Technology: “We have collars, an automatic calf feeder, a Lely scraper. The calf feeder makes it very easy; when you’ve 100 cows, it’s a one-man operation and we’ve no off-farm help. So, during calving, we can manage everything on our own.”

Breeding: “We look to calve all cows in a 12-week calving spread in spring. We buy about 40 straws of sexed semen and we do a small bit of conventional. We’re involved in the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme but we breed for high-EBI cows, they are in the top 10% with an average EBI of 220.”

Veterinary college: “I’m [in Warsaw, Poland] for three years. There’s a fairly large community of us over there and we’re playing a bit of GAA. The first few years are book based; it’s all about getting a foundation. This year especially, we’re starting to get hands-on; putting some of the theory into practice.”

The O’Donnells use Nedap collars on the farm. \ Donal O’Leary

Pat O’Donnell says the Holstein Friesians have a 'very good will to milk'. \ Donal O’Leary