The Irish Dairy Farmer magazine is now on sale, but you cannot buy it in shops!

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Feedback from readers who have purchased the magazine has been overwhelmingly positive, which is great to hear.

Below, we outline our top five favourite articles from this year's magazine.

Clover recipe brings luck to the plate

Offaly dairy farmers Mairead and Pat McLoughlin are milking 70 cows on a fragmented farm near Birr.

Both are new entrants to dairy farming, having taken over the farm from Mairead’s father in 2015.

What makes this farm special is the way the McLoughlins have managed to incorporate clover into their swards.

In 2022, the McLoughlins spread no chemical nitrogen on two-thirds of their milking block and it grew the same amount of grass as the rest of the farm. It’s a remarkable success story.

Words of Risdon

Powerful things can happen when couples work together and this is really exemplified by Rachel and Richard Risdon.

The couple are both from farming backgrounds, but neither were going to inherit dairy farms, so instead they went out on their own, taking on a 20-year lease on a 151-acre arable and sheep farm near Exeter in Devon.

The pair converted the farm to dairy and are now milking 300 cows and rearing all youngstock on a low-cost spring-calving system. They discuss the challenges they’ve encountered and how they’re overcoming them.

Brewing up a lasting blend

Sticking with dairy farming in the UK, Andrew and Claire Brewer open up their farm and tell their story to Irish Dairy Farmer.

The couple are farming over 1,000 acres in Cornwall, having purchased over 500 acres in the last 10 years and have also invested in renewables.

For Andrew and Claire, farming is not about accumulating more and more financial assets, instead they are interested in generating passive income, giving back to the industry and setting up their children in their own careers. It’s an important story for all farmers to read.

Health is the real wealth

We’ve all been told that our health is our wealth, but it’s only when it’s taken away from us do we really acknowledge it.

This is what happened to James Hurley from Clonakilty, Co Cork. He talks to Tommy Moyles about his stroke in 2018 and how it changed his life, raising autistic children and how he farms in harmony with nature.

Solar panels

Solar panels are the buzzword, but what can they deliver for dairy farmers?

Irish Farmers Journal renewables editor Stephen Robb and dairy editor Aidan Brennan crunch the numbers in terms of the scale needed and the potential savings that can be made.

Plenty of farmers are installing them, but are they the best place to spend money?