The farm: ”I farm in partnership here with my mother and father, Declan and Sylvia. We were farming beef, sheep and tillage before we got into dairy, 2020 was our first year milking. We are farming 62ha near Camolin. The land would be a mixture of dry and wet ground. At the moment it’s dry and the cows have been out full-time since Paddy’s Day.”

New entrants: ”I worked on a 1,500-cow dairy farm in New Zealand a couple of years ago and that is where I got fond of cows. When I came home, I did my Green Cert and we set up a farm partnership. We put in a 20-unit Pearson parlour in 2019 and the cubicle shed went up last year.”

Cows: “We have 100 cows, a mix of Holstein Friesian and Jersey-cross cows. This was our second year calving. We started on 31 January and, in the first three weeks, we calved 73% of the heifers. The six-week calving rate was 92% to 93%.”

Breeding season: ”I did the AI course with Progressive Genetics. It’s handy. I have a drafting gate so I can draft them out after milking and artificially inseminate them myself. It’s handy not having to wait around for a technician because they do be up to their eyes.”

Good year for calves: ”I keep all the heifer calves and the bull calves go to the mart when they are a few weeks old. It was a good year for calves. I can’t complain. The first batch of calves brought a good price.”

Glanbia supplier: ”We had planned on milking 150 cows but if it stays the way it is, we would probably have to cap cow numbers. The financial implications would be worrying. It is disheartening because I was only talking to Glanbia two years ago about this and we told them about the numbers we planned on going to and they said it was no problem, and now there is a problem.”