Pat Flynn describes himself as a Jack of all trades, but one thing is for sure – he’s top when it comes to selecting outcross bloodlines, culling poor-performing cows, and managing a commercial dairy herd on difficult land at Araglen in north Cork.

His herd jumped 13 places to secure the number one spot ranked on Economic Breeding Index (EBI) for the first time. There are now 20 herds surpassing the €200 mark on EBI. The average EBI of the top 200 herds is €187, with €56 coming from milk and €100 from fertility. This compares with a national average of €125 (milk €36, fertility €74).

Pat Flynn has what you would describe as a bull breeder herd. The foundation is a commercial dairy herd supplying milk to Dairygold, with exceptional milk solids. A member of the Cork Holstein Breeders Association and the Pure Friesian Club, Pat’s herd last year milk recorded 1,600 gals (7,200 litres) with delivered solids at 4.24% fat and 3.83% protein. This year the milk recording suggests the herd will produce 1,481 gallons (6,700 litres) at 4.17% fat and 3.82% protein.

Herd EBI is €231 (€29 milk/€171 fertility), mainly a British Friesian type herd with some Holstein bloodlines used over the years. While his herd average EBI would suggest it is heavily weighted for exceptional fertility, the milk performance is also very good.

The herd

Pat has one cow, Rebecca Image, who has four sons in AI. When I talked to Pat this week he was just finished blood testing another bull that will go into AI in Scotland very soon.

Unusually, most of Pat Flynn’s herd are out of stock bulls. Pat said: “Over the years I have travelled the country buying the top stock bulls from various herds and these have been the foundation for our herd today.

“I bought a bull with some Marty breeding (65% Holstein) and crossed him on our Image cow and none of the subsequent daughters milked under 4% protein. Then I used some Dawsons Belvedere and some Hollywood Tyrella and we have what we have today.”

Pat calves down surplus in-calf heifers and sells them calved in the spring. He also sells stock bulls at seven to eight months of age and milks about 70 spring-calving cows each year.

In terms of stock sales, Pat sells about 50 bulls each year – it could vary from 45 to 65 young bulls. He says he has to do something different to what everyone else is because farmers need an outcross. He said: “I use AI for maybe the first three weeks of the breeding season and I’ll use a mixture of bulls.”

Pat says he is not a big feeder and doesn’t have a diet feeder. “This year I’ll have fed about 500kg of meal per cow and last year I probably fed 1,000kg per cow because of the cold spring. ”

Pat has been ruthless on culling cows from the herd – this is one of the main reasons he has jumped up through the herd EBI ranks.