The Carroll farm at Rockchapel is situated at the county bounds between Kerry, Cork and Limerick, with the Carrolls very much in the Cork camp. The family are steeped in GAA and farming. Michael’s son David plays football with Rockchapel in between helping out on the farm alongside his sisters Rachael, Kaitlyn, Nicole and Laura.

Michael is milking 128 cows on a 51ha farm. Land in the area is severely disadvantaged in terms of soil type, altitude and rainfall with many of the neighbouring farms planted in forestry. This makes the Carroll farm all the more special considering the quality of the grass, herd and general farming standards.

The herd is all black and white with an average EBI of €182 delivering an average of 3.71% protein and 4.56% fat in 2021, or a total of 483kg MS/cow from 750kg of meal per cow. The Carrolls have been milk recording for 30 years and place a big emphasis on fat and protein percent when picking bulls.

Cows go to grass in early March and will be in and out depending on the weather and ground conditions. One thing Michael has noticed is that no matter how much damage is done in early spring the ground always heals, but you have to pick your moments for grazing, he says.

Replacement heifers and silage are kept on the outfarm. Both the out-farm and parts of the milking platform have been reseeded in the last few years and while clover is being included in the seed mixture, Michael is unsure if it will persist on his soil type.

Grazing infrastructure is excellent and the farmyard is spotlessly clean. The 14 unit parlour gets three hot washes a week through the gas heaters. A new slurry tank and dribble bar have been purchased recently, so Michael and David have full control on when they can spread slurry. A contractor is used in spring to spread slurry with a umbilical pipe.

All protected urea is being used and less nitrogen is being applied now than before, with a saving of 4t of nitrogen so far this year alone. Michael says that May was a great month for grass this year. One area that really stood out to the judges was how low the carbon footprint figure was for the farm, with it currently being 0.81 kg CO2e per kg of fat and protein corrected milk.