I also keep three pedigree Limousins for breeding, as a side interest to the dairying. I work full time in Bellair estate, milking 310 cows for Ciaran McDonald.”

Family: “Mother Geraldine, father Tommy, brothers Ultan, Stephen, Wayne, Glen, Clive and Marcus, sisters Vanessa, Lorraine, Serena, Michelle and Amanda.”

Home farm: “My father and I milk 78 Holstein Friesian cows. I am fully trained in AI so I breed most of the cows on the farm and we use a Limousin bull to clean up the repeats. All of our bull calves are kept for bull beef and are killed at 22 months. We, like many other Irish dairy farmers, also plan to expand post quota in 2015 to around 100 to 110 cows. If we do begin to milk these numbers, we will probably cut back on the bull beef and focus more on our cows.”

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Sheep: “My sister Lorraine looks after the 90 ewes that lamb in January and February, at home. She has a degree in agricultural science and land management from Waterford IT, so she knows what she is doing. All the ewes are cross bred and are bred to a Charollais ram. All the lambs are killed at 40kg and go to Irish Country Meats in Wexford, through the Offaly producers group.”

Bellair Estate: “I have milked cows at Bellair from a young age, but when I completed a two year degree in dairy herd management at Kildalton last year, I got a full time job as assistant manager. We milk 330 cows on a 32 unit DeLaval rotary parlour. I carry out a lot of the AI on the farm as well as the hoof trimming. Originally the herd was 50:50 spring, autumn calving but it is now 90:10. By 2015 we are looking at making the herd 100% spring calving as it is less labour intensive.”

Quotable quote: “It makes much more sense to produce milk off grass therefore, in my opinion, spring calving is the way forward.”

- April Higgins