The open day provided farmers with the chance to view the progress and up-to-date findings on the research that has been undertaken on the college farm over the last three years.

The research has focused on the effects of perennial ryegrass and white clover inclusion on the performance of spring-calving dairy systems. Research officer Brian McCarthy showed that increased clover in the swards resulted in 58kg of extra milk solids and extra revenue of €245/cow.

Management the key to success

Key to the success of clover on the farm was management. Herd manager Fergal Coughlan gave a good account of himself by answering any questions before they were asked in his presentation.

Learning how to adapt to spring pasture availability and its grazing management, as well as the variation of clover content throughout paddocks and dealing with bloat, were the main areas he had to deal with.

According to Michael O’Donovan, you either go all out for clover or you stay away from it. There was no point having high clover content in some paddocks and none in others, as this would be asking for trouble. This was to ensure cows were used to it in the diet and reduced incidence of bloat through cows gorging on it.

He also told farmers that if soil fertility is poor, you have no business with clover. He encouraged farmers to take regular soil samples and react to the results.

Latest findings

Frank Buckley showed the latest findings on crossbreeding and also gave an update on the elite Jersey herd being created.

Padraig French outlined some of the options farmers have in dealing with price volatility and gave his views on Brexit and the uncertainty it has created with regard to sterling and access to the UK market. He told the attendance that we saw 10% of value knocked off over the space of last weekend. That’s the equivalent of 2.5c/l.

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Monday Management: Deadline looms for discussion groups