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We farm: “Just over 200ac on the River Boyne. Some of the land is moory and wet and some of it is dry with gravel underneath.”
Family: “I’m farming with my mother and father, Ned and Jean.”
Cows: “We are milking 100 cows currently, with plans for expansion. The cows are 70% Holstein and 30% British Friesian. We have over 100 sheep also, but we plan to cut down to 50 ewes.”
Calving: “We have just over 100 cows calving this spring. Dad is an AI technician and does all of our AI. We also have a Limousin stock bull which we use with cows but not the heifers. We sell all of our calves. I have my own herd number and I buy and rear a few of our heifer calves each year.”
Dairy: “My father decided to get into dairy farming 25 years ago, after working as a relief milker.
Milk prices: “Milk prices are good at the minute. I think with the quota gone they’ll drop at some stage.”
Future plans: “We want to expand but we’re not going to go too mad with cow numbers. We won’t go beyond 150 cows. We want to be as efficient as possible and keep our costs as low as we can.”
2018: “[Last] year was tough. During the snow in March snow drifts were a huge issue on our farm and we were lucky not to lose any stock. During the summer drought, our well was our biggest problem.”
Fodder: “With some of our land being wet, we managed to keep cows grazing during the drought and avoid touching our silage stocks. We grazed our second-cut silage fields and cut silage in October. We’re fine for fodder now.”
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