I farm: “With my father, Andrew, in Newtownforbes, Longford. We are milking 220 crossbred cows. The land is dry clay running into peat. We rear our own heifers and sell beef calves between three and six weeks. We are stocked at 4LU/ha on the home farm. We have outfarms leased, where we rear our heifers and cut silage.”

Calving: “Is going well. We have around 185 cows calved and have an 85% six-week calving rate. We plan to start calving around 10 February, which is later than some farms due to our heavier soil and later turn out.”

Grazing: “At the moment, the cows are out by day. The weather this year has been a challenge. We zero graze the outfarms at either end of the grazing season to stretch the rotation. This allows us to keep a higher stocking rate on the home farm.”

Collars: “We invested in collars a few years ago. They take the pressure off during the breeding season. Our empty rate has decreased year on year and our calving is more compact. All of the cows are artificially inseminated. We synchronise the heifers, artificially inseminate them and then an Angus bull cleans up.”

Solar panels: “We recently installed 63 solar panels on the roof of a shed. The TAMS grant was a motivating factor. There is good payback and good savings in the medium to long term. We were a pilot farm for the Smart Farming Programme a number of years ago and have been working to become more sustainable. We recently bought a dribble bar, installed a water harvesting system and upgraded the plate cooler. Installing solar panels was the next step to become more sustainable both environmentally and financially.”

Grant: “We got in touch with the IFA and they came out and helped with the grant aid and application. They were a great help and did all of the paperwork. It made the process very simple.”