Up until recently, the O’Leary farm near Blarney, Co Cork, consisted of a milking block of 96 acres and a whole farm area of 158 acres.
Denis and Ruth O’Leary won the Dairygold milk quality awards in 2022 and recently hosted a farm walk.
A new 10-year lease of 70 acres adjoining the milking platform brings total area being farmed to 228 acres in 2023. All calves and heifers are reared on farm and all silage is made on farm also.
There are currently 131 cows milking on the farm. The additional land will allow Denis to increase numbers, as he plans to increase to 180 cows in two years.
Extra stock
The extra stock needed will be homebred, excluding 12 maiden heifers bought this year.
The farm has traditionally run at 3.4 livestock units per hectare (LU/ha), but Denis aims to correct this back to 2.8LU/ha on the milking platform. The driver for this is not to rely on imported feed in the future.
At with Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis completed 32 grass walks in 2022. On the walks, he eyeballs the grass situation and plans for the week ahead. The farm grew 11t of dry matter per hectare (DM/ha), with an average of 8.6 grazings per paddock.
This was grown with 183kg nitrogen per hectare (N/ha) over the whole farm.
Denis fed 1.5t of meal in 2022. Denis feeds 1.2t on average every year and aims to reduce this to 1t in the coming years by reducing stocking rate on the milking platform.
He plans to invest in technology to reduce the workload ahead of expanding cow numbers.
This year, he has invested in automated calf feeders and plans to add four units to his existing 16-unit milking parlour this winter. Heat detection collars and a drafting system are also technologies Denis hopes to invest in the near future.
Scale of operation
For Denis, the number of cows he has isn’t his driver: “Scale of the operation never motivated me, what motivates me is having quality stock and a good quality of life.”
Denis values his work-life balance and expansion for him must be sustainable. Time with his family is hugely important to him, which is why having the infrastructure in place to facilitate expansion is crucial.
The farm has invested in 220m of roadways this year linking the new land to the existing milking platform.
He has the use of the yard in the new land, with enough cubicles and slurry storage to accommodate the extra cows throughout the winter period.
Herd production
The herd produced 577kg milk solids per cow (MS/cow) in 2022 from 7,055l milk, with 4.31% fat and 3.64% protein. Denis is confident he can improve on this by focusing on increasing the value of each litre of milk produced on the farm.
The farm is managed by David Cusack, who has been running the farm since 1987. The farm has always aimed to deliver high yield per cow.
“We have a valuable asset in David. I needed to afford his wage and enough for ourselves - the best way for us to do that was to drive output and I feel the Holstein Friesian can do that for us,” Denis said.
Host Denis O'Leary at the Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis is an advocate for getting the right balance between achieving good clean-outs and feeding the cows well. His first priority is to make sure the cows have enough grass and clean up with a topper if needed.
Breeding
The O’Learys have a pedigree herd with an average EBI of €236. His herd is fully genotyped. He feels genomics will help him improve reliability and eliminate parentage errors.
“There is still room for improvement, but I am confident I can increase fat and protein percent while maintaining yield and do that from Holstein genetics,” he said.
Denis’s herd shows a steady EBI improvement each year, with replacements at an EBI of €242 and calves at €276.
There is an emphasis on fertility, with a sub-index of €110. His six-week calving rate is 86%, which benefits his milk production through additional days in milk.
Denis achieved a 7% empty rate after a 12-week breeding season, which gives him more opportunities to selectively cull under-performing cows.
Milk quality
Dairygold milk quality adviser Denis Guiry outlined the importance of calving down cows with a low somatic cell count (SCC), which makes Denis and David's job much easier throughout the lactation. Cubicles are scraped and limed twice a day when cows are housed, even throughout the dry period.
Hygiene is critical in the parlour. Cows are dry wiped every milking with a separate towel for each cow. There is no stripping of cows due to the risk of spreading infection.
Automatic cluster flushing was installed in the milking parlour to assist with reducing the spread of infection, but Denis believes routine and consistency is still the key to keeping SCC low.
Denis milk records seven times per year and says “if you’re not milk recording, you're basically driving blind”.
There was a spike in SCC in June and July, where it rose over 130,000 cells/ml. There were a few millionaire cows in the system - one cow had a result of 7,200,000 cells/ml, which accounted for 28% of the bulk tank.
It was a simple fix to hold this cow from the tank. Without milk recording, this would have been an impossible fix.
Environmental sustainability
Denis has been using technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions on his farm. Focusing on grassland management to extend the grazing season will lead to a reduction in emissions due to more grass in the diet and less slurry produced.
All slurry is spread using low emissions slurry spreading techniques.
Some of the hundreds of farmers at the Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis has been apprehensive of clover's ability to replace chemical nitrogen. The additional land acquired this year leaves him with scope to experiment with reducing chemical N on his clover paddocks.
Teagasc ASSAP adviser Eimear Connery spoke about water quality on the farm. There are no waterways on the farm, but this doesn’t mean Denis’ actions won’t affect water quality. Most of Denis’s land is free-draining soil and is susceptible to nitrate loss.
Denis and Ruth O’Leary are milking 131 cows on 64ha at Blarney, Co Cork.Denis stressed the importance of routine and consistency as the keys to success of milk quality on the farm.Milk recording is paramount to analyse cow performance, identifying passenger cows and key to documenting repeat high SCC offenders. Teagasc adviser Adrian O’Callaghan underlined the importance of finding the correct stocking rate on farms respective to the grass growth capacity.
Up until recently, the O’Leary farm near Blarney, Co Cork, consisted of a milking block of 96 acres and a whole farm area of 158 acres.
Denis and Ruth O’Leary won the Dairygold milk quality awards in 2022 and recently hosted a farm walk.
A new 10-year lease of 70 acres adjoining the milking platform brings total area being farmed to 228 acres in 2023. All calves and heifers are reared on farm and all silage is made on farm also.
There are currently 131 cows milking on the farm. The additional land will allow Denis to increase numbers, as he plans to increase to 180 cows in two years.
Extra stock
The extra stock needed will be homebred, excluding 12 maiden heifers bought this year.
The farm has traditionally run at 3.4 livestock units per hectare (LU/ha), but Denis aims to correct this back to 2.8LU/ha on the milking platform. The driver for this is not to rely on imported feed in the future.
At with Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis completed 32 grass walks in 2022. On the walks, he eyeballs the grass situation and plans for the week ahead. The farm grew 11t of dry matter per hectare (DM/ha), with an average of 8.6 grazings per paddock.
This was grown with 183kg nitrogen per hectare (N/ha) over the whole farm.
Denis fed 1.5t of meal in 2022. Denis feeds 1.2t on average every year and aims to reduce this to 1t in the coming years by reducing stocking rate on the milking platform.
He plans to invest in technology to reduce the workload ahead of expanding cow numbers.
This year, he has invested in automated calf feeders and plans to add four units to his existing 16-unit milking parlour this winter. Heat detection collars and a drafting system are also technologies Denis hopes to invest in the near future.
Scale of operation
For Denis, the number of cows he has isn’t his driver: “Scale of the operation never motivated me, what motivates me is having quality stock and a good quality of life.”
Denis values his work-life balance and expansion for him must be sustainable. Time with his family is hugely important to him, which is why having the infrastructure in place to facilitate expansion is crucial.
The farm has invested in 220m of roadways this year linking the new land to the existing milking platform.
He has the use of the yard in the new land, with enough cubicles and slurry storage to accommodate the extra cows throughout the winter period.
Herd production
The herd produced 577kg milk solids per cow (MS/cow) in 2022 from 7,055l milk, with 4.31% fat and 3.64% protein. Denis is confident he can improve on this by focusing on increasing the value of each litre of milk produced on the farm.
The farm is managed by David Cusack, who has been running the farm since 1987. The farm has always aimed to deliver high yield per cow.
“We have a valuable asset in David. I needed to afford his wage and enough for ourselves - the best way for us to do that was to drive output and I feel the Holstein Friesian can do that for us,” Denis said.
Host Denis O'Leary at the Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis is an advocate for getting the right balance between achieving good clean-outs and feeding the cows well. His first priority is to make sure the cows have enough grass and clean up with a topper if needed.
Breeding
The O’Learys have a pedigree herd with an average EBI of €236. His herd is fully genotyped. He feels genomics will help him improve reliability and eliminate parentage errors.
“There is still room for improvement, but I am confident I can increase fat and protein percent while maintaining yield and do that from Holstein genetics,” he said.
Denis’s herd shows a steady EBI improvement each year, with replacements at an EBI of €242 and calves at €276.
There is an emphasis on fertility, with a sub-index of €110. His six-week calving rate is 86%, which benefits his milk production through additional days in milk.
Denis achieved a 7% empty rate after a 12-week breeding season, which gives him more opportunities to selectively cull under-performing cows.
Milk quality
Dairygold milk quality adviser Denis Guiry outlined the importance of calving down cows with a low somatic cell count (SCC), which makes Denis and David's job much easier throughout the lactation. Cubicles are scraped and limed twice a day when cows are housed, even throughout the dry period.
Hygiene is critical in the parlour. Cows are dry wiped every milking with a separate towel for each cow. There is no stripping of cows due to the risk of spreading infection.
Automatic cluster flushing was installed in the milking parlour to assist with reducing the spread of infection, but Denis believes routine and consistency is still the key to keeping SCC low.
Denis milk records seven times per year and says “if you’re not milk recording, you're basically driving blind”.
There was a spike in SCC in June and July, where it rose over 130,000 cells/ml. There were a few millionaire cows in the system - one cow had a result of 7,200,000 cells/ml, which accounted for 28% of the bulk tank.
It was a simple fix to hold this cow from the tank. Without milk recording, this would have been an impossible fix.
Environmental sustainability
Denis has been using technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions on his farm. Focusing on grassland management to extend the grazing season will lead to a reduction in emissions due to more grass in the diet and less slurry produced.
All slurry is spread using low emissions slurry spreading techniques.
Some of the hundreds of farmers at the Dairygold/Teagasc milk quality open day. \ O'Gorman Photography
Denis has been apprehensive of clover's ability to replace chemical nitrogen. The additional land acquired this year leaves him with scope to experiment with reducing chemical N on his clover paddocks.
Teagasc ASSAP adviser Eimear Connery spoke about water quality on the farm. There are no waterways on the farm, but this doesn’t mean Denis’ actions won’t affect water quality. Most of Denis’s land is free-draining soil and is susceptible to nitrate loss.
Denis and Ruth O’Leary are milking 131 cows on 64ha at Blarney, Co Cork.Denis stressed the importance of routine and consistency as the keys to success of milk quality on the farm.Milk recording is paramount to analyse cow performance, identifying passenger cows and key to documenting repeat high SCC offenders. Teagasc adviser Adrian O’Callaghan underlined the importance of finding the correct stocking rate on farms respective to the grass growth capacity. 
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: