Using land leasing to aid dairy expansion was the theme of Tuesday’s Irish Grassland Association’s (IGA) dairy summer tour which attracted a record crowd of more than 600.

The first visit was to Jamie and Lorraine Kealy near Tullow, Co Carlow, who lease their full 36ha milking platform. In the afternoon Cathal and Grainne Moran, Skeaghvasteen, Co Kilkenny, who lease over half their farm, played hosts.

Building relationships with the lessor, family, bankers, accountants and advisers was emphasised as being critical when leasing land. “Having the right people behind you is more important than getting milk out of the cow,” said Jamie Kealy.

While land adjacent to a milking platform is valuable, both farmers made it clear that developing new land was cash hungry. Cathal said it cost him €2,125/ha on average developing leased ground. “The minimum lease I’d consider on the milking platform is 15 years due to the costs involved. If you asked me 10 years ago I’d have said a 10-year lease,” said Cathal. This money was seen as essential to make the lease pay as the land needed to be productive as soon as possible. Last year the Kealys sold 530kg of milksolids per cow on 780kg meal.

On Tuesday the cows were doing 25.5 litres at 4.16% fat and 3.77% protein giving 2.05kg milk solids. When asked what is the secret to such production, Jamie insisted it was grazing grass covers of 1,300 to 1,400kg of dry matter per hectare during the main grazing season. Cows also had a 92% six-week calving rate and just 7% were empty last year.

Cathal Moran started farming in 1997 on a mixed farm milking 16 cows on 63ha. Today, though strategic land leasing, the Morans are milking 258 cows on 144ha. Underpinning this expansion are excellent production and fertility figures. Last year 94% calved in six weeks with a 6% empty rate. He produced 450kg milk solids per cow on 1.2t of meal.