Clarke, who is milking 112 cows on 75ha, farms just outside Baileborough in Co Cavan. Clarke is stocked at 3.5 LU/ha on the milking platform which is heavily stocked especially given the area.
A crowd of approximately 100 attended the farm walk to hear how Clarke has developed his farm in recent years especially since he has been a participant on the Dairylink programme.
This was the third Diarylink farm walk to take place this week.
Clarke spends approximately three hours milking in the morning although this includes feeding 70 calves. It takes him in the region of two and half hours to do the evening milking.
The reason behind the lengthy milking times is the size of his parlour. The parlour has just eight units and it does not have feeders. Clarke has to manually fill meal into each feeder for every single cow being milked twice a day.
Instead of investing in a new milking parlour, Clarke has focused on “investing in the areas of the farm which will give a return”.
“I could have spent €200,000 on a new parlour, and that was tempting, but I thought the money could have been better spent elsewhere,” Clarke said. Charles has plans to invest in a milking parlour in the coming years.
Subsequently, Clarke has invested in drainage work in the wet and heavy areas as well as roadways and reseeding.
Just 13% of Clarke’s land has optimal levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. He said he will continue to carry out drainage work, reseed and improve soil fertility as well improving roadways on the farm.
Read more
Farm walk at profitable Dairylink farm
Wet conditions highlight Dairylink farm challenges
Clarke, who is milking 112 cows on 75ha, farms just outside Baileborough in Co Cavan. Clarke is stocked at 3.5 LU/ha on the milking platform which is heavily stocked especially given the area.
A crowd of approximately 100 attended the farm walk to hear how Clarke has developed his farm in recent years especially since he has been a participant on the Dairylink programme.
This was the third Diarylink farm walk to take place this week.
Clarke spends approximately three hours milking in the morning although this includes feeding 70 calves. It takes him in the region of two and half hours to do the evening milking.
The reason behind the lengthy milking times is the size of his parlour. The parlour has just eight units and it does not have feeders. Clarke has to manually fill meal into each feeder for every single cow being milked twice a day.
Instead of investing in a new milking parlour, Clarke has focused on “investing in the areas of the farm which will give a return”.
“I could have spent €200,000 on a new parlour, and that was tempting, but I thought the money could have been better spent elsewhere,” Clarke said. Charles has plans to invest in a milking parlour in the coming years.
Subsequently, Clarke has invested in drainage work in the wet and heavy areas as well as roadways and reseeding.
Just 13% of Clarke’s land has optimal levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. He said he will continue to carry out drainage work, reseed and improve soil fertility as well improving roadways on the farm.
Read more
Farm walk at profitable Dairylink farm
Wet conditions highlight Dairylink farm challenges
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