Excellence in everything they do is the hallmark of the O’Leary family farm at Ballyagran, Co Limerick. Arthur and Ann are in partnership with their son Conor and are currently milking 120 cows with plans to go to 144 cows next season. Arthur says they have the land to carry the cows, the cubicles to winter them and with Conor at home full-time there is plenty of help on hand.

Land quality, grazing infrastructure and facilities around the farmyard are all excellent. A new 12-unit milking parlour was built in 2015 and at the time the O’Learys left space to make it an 18 unit so these extra units will be added this coming winter. The farmyard and milking parlour is spotless.

The O’Learys are farming a total of 101ha and keep 60 beef calves every year with the bullocks sold at 12 months of age and the beef heifers finished off grass at 20 months of age. The British Friesian-type cow is a huge advantage when it comes to the beefing qualities of the offspring Arthur says, with regular customers for the surplus calves and cattle every year.

The cows have an average EBI of €123, with steady gains being made in the youngstock EBI with the in-calf heifers having an average EBI of €149. The herd produced 467kg MS/cow in 2021 from about 1t of meal per cow. At the time of the judge’s visit, the farm was just coming out of a dry spell and the herd were being fed 4kg of meal per cow per day, but it’s normally 2kg in the summer months.

Conor is responsible for grassland management and he took up grass measuring when he came back from New Zealand. Over the last 18 months, a staggering 26% of the farm has been reseeded as the O’Learys attempt to get as much clover established as possible and improve grazing varieties across the farm.

Fertiliser use has already reduced by 10% to 15% so far this year with 18 units/ac of protected urea being spread now after each grazing. Two rounds of nitrogen were skipped this year as low emission slurry spreading was carried out in the spring.

Quality of life is an important metric for the O’Learys – milking usually starts at around 7.15am and all farm work is wrapped up for 6.30pm in the evenings. They have every second weekend off and any days off in between that are needed.