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PJ Boylan
When PJ Boylan tried to justify his cattle enterprise to his discussion group, they told him: “You can keep cash together with an elastic band and you don’t need to keep cattle to do that.”
This gives you a feel for the honesty and straight talking with which PJ operates with his group and dairy business. We found the same honesty when we walked into his yard.
PJ produces winter milk from his Drumboat, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, base. He is currently milking 57 cows, averaging 7,880 litres, and last year supplied 449,171 litres to Glanbia.
This farm has exceptional milk quality figures. Last year, the average TBC was only 3,700, with the highest monthly result only 5,500, while the average SCC was 87,000 cells/ml. These are very impressive results considering cows are milked all year round and are milking indoors for four to five months.
In order to keep TBC results so low, it is important to maintain your milking machine in good order and exceptionally clean all year round. PJ has an eight-unit parlour with an automatic washing system installed. A hot wash is done twice a day, every day, for the entire year.
All cows are dry-wiped. If dirty, the teats are washed, all cows are drawn out and then clusters attached. Last year, PJ picked up about seven or eight clinical cases of mastitis.
He said: “Cows get six weeks dry, but if they are thin, then it’s more like seven or eight weeks.”
Water at 40°C is used post-milking to rinse out the machine and also to heat up the milk line, so as the hot wash will stay warmer for longer.
For the hot wash, 15 litres per unit of water at 65°C is used, along with 450ml of TC 86. Finally, this is rinsed out with 120 litres of cold water.
A descaler wash is also done every 14 milkings. The tank is washed out using TC86 also and, after every third collection, Acidophy is used.
PJ said: “I’ve a timer on a hot water tank, so I’ve hot water every second day for my bulk tank.”
Farming system
In 2013, milking 57 cows in winter milk production, supplying Glanbia Co-op. 109 acres (44.12ha) farmed. Milk delivered was 7,880 litres per cow at 4.13% fat and 3.37% protein.
Parlour
Eight-unit herringbone.
SCC results
Average 86,000 cells/ml for 2013.
TBC results
Average 3,700 for 2013.
“I like to keep stress levels in the cows low so we IBR, BVD and Lepto and thankfully we have had no BVD PIs in the herd so far.”
“In summer I use Summer teatcare for post dipping or Deosan teatcare but when milking indoors in winter I use an iodine-based product.”
An organised operator who works clean, without fuss and who keeps a strict measure on all aspects of his business.
Edmund and Thomas Dwan
Thomas Dwan and his father Edmund milked 98 cows in 2013 on a 75ha grazing platform near Thurles, Co Tipperary. Last year, they supplied 478,896 litres to Centenary Thurles Co-op, averaging 4.09% butterfat and 3.57% protein.
The minute you enter the Dwan yard, you get a sense that they have pride in their place of work. The old stable doors are freshly painted, the old stone is cleaned and new concrete is melted in with the old.
If you get a sense of pride in the farmyard, you get a real sense of food production in the dairy and parlour. The milk quality results for 2013 are exceptional, staying well below 80,000 for most of the year and rising above 100,000 for September, October and November when milk yield slows down. The average SCC was 83,000 cells/ml, while the average TBC was 12,700.
The Dwans never had a millionaire cow on cell count until 2014. All cows are pre-stripped and pre-dipped before each milking. Stripping ensures no cow gets a bad case of mastitis.
If a cow’s milk is being dumped, the clusters are also dipped in Clusterx (peracetic acid) after milking to help reduce the transfer of infection from one cow to the next. A 16-unit parlour was built in 2011 and a hot wash is completed once per day.
The routine is a hot rinse after milking with Hydrosan powder on days one to five. On day six, there is a hot descale of the plant and on day seven, there is a detergent steriliser used, followed by a rinse. The bulk tank is washed out after every collection using chlorine-free caustic liquid hydrosan.
They plan to increase stock numbers to 140 or 150 post-2015, but no extra slurry storage has been constructed yet. The plan is to build the storage as the numbers increase.
Farming system
In 2013, milking 97 cows in spring milk production, supplying Centenary Thurles Co-op. 185 acres (75.79ha) farmed. Milk delivered was 4,940 litres per cow at 4.09% fat and 3.57% protein.
Parlour
16-unit herringbone.
SCC results
Average 83,000 for 2013.
TBC results
Average 12,700 for 2013.
“We milk record four times per year and have been doing this for the last four years. We vaccinate for BVD, IBR, Salmonella and Lepto, but not rotavirus.”
“We use Synulox tubes if we have a case of mastitis and the cows get a tube morning and evening for three days.”
Pride and passion in abundance with top-quality results to back it up.
Gerald O’Connell
The first greeting we got when we arrived in Gerald O’Connell’s yard was from Black Jack, the winning derby donkey who was looking for oats and sitting pretty in the cow cubicle shed. Seemingly, training donkeys for local derbys is commonplace near Askeaton in the summer months. Gerald O’Connell is farming at Hazlefield, near Askeaton, Co Limerick, and, in 2013, milked 62 cows and supplied almost 375,000 litres to Kerry Co-op. The cows averaged 6,000 litres at 4.21% butterfat and 3.66% protein.
That’s not bad for a new entrant to cows. In 2011, Gerald started milking cows, switching from all bull beef. He started with approximately 60 cows, but has intentions to get closer to 100 milking cows. The farm is very dry and free-draining, and looks down on Aughinish Alumina, The Gouldings fertilizer plant and the Nestlé baby food factory.
Morning milking is finished for 8am and, in the evening, the farm shuts down at 6pm. All cows are pre-stripped and pre-dipped with Deosan foam before milking. They are stripped morning and evening, leaving nothing to chance. Cows are dipped with C-Dip post-milking. Any cows that are found to have a clinical case of mastitis will then be treated using Tetra-Delta tubes for at least two milkings. Any cows that have a high cell count or are known to be problem cows will be left out of the parlour until the end of milking to ensure there is no cross transfer between cows through the clusters.
The parlour is washed with Hydrosan and there is no recycling of product. In the evening, 800ml of hypochlorite is used in the wash and all runs to waste. The bulk tank is washed with Hydrosan every second day and descaled every Wednesday. Friday is hot wash day from water heated on night-rate electricity.
Water to the farm is from a group scheme and cost to the farm is about €340 per year. Every house on the road has use of that water and the council do regular quality checks. The cost for an ordinary residential house is about €80 per year.
Milk quality results for last year were good. His TBC averaged 10,000 and his SCC was an average of 101,000 cells/ml. Interestingly, Ger uses Uddermint. Routinely, if a heifer or cow got mastitis, Ger would rub Uddermint cream into the quarter, give it 12 hours and, if still there, would then tube the quarter, but he would use very few tubes in the year. Dry cow period is 10 weeks for heifers and eight weeks for cows with sealers used on all.
Farming system
In 2013, milking 62 cows in spring milk production supplying Kerry Co-op. 121 acres (49ha) farmed. Milk delivered was 6,000 litres per cow at 4.21% fat and 3.66% protein.
Parlour
12-unit herringbone.
SCC results
Average 101,000 for 2013.
TBC results
Average 10,000 for 2013.
“We purchased the parlour second-hand from a farmer in Edenderry for €26,000 and also bought his bulk tank, wash troughs and ice builder. We need to replace the tank soon.”
“I use the CMT paddle in the spring to identify infected quarters and, once milk is up and going, I’m watching the SCC from the co-op test and the milk sock after milking.”
All new entrants to milk can take clear lessons from Gerald O’Connell’s performance to date.
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