The father-and-son team of Pat and Eddie Kennedy are farming 56ha of excellent quality land outside the village of Ballingarry in north Tipperary.

The Kennedys are milking 162 cows this year, up from 112 cows being milked in 2012.

Eddie Kennedy speaking at the Arrabawn farm walk

Eddie works on the farm part-time as he holds a full-time job as dairy lecturer in nearby Gurteen Agricultural College.

Stocking rate on the milking platform this year is 2.85 cows/ha and the overall stocking rate is 2.65 cows/ha.

The Kennedys grew 13.8t/ha of grass in 2016. The plan is to increase cow numbers to 170 next year and this will require 15t/ha of grass to be grown in order to feed the herd without having to buy in silage.

Michael Hogan from Teagasc spoke about the importance of resilient dairy systems. He cautioned against farmers getting carried away with increasing stocking rates. He said that stocking rate should be based on the amount of grass grown on the land area farmed.

“Buying in feed is costly. Grass silage or zero-grazed grass will cost about 14c/kg to 15c/kg dry matter. Meal costs between 20c/kg and 30c/kg dry matter but grazed grass costs about 6c/kg dry matter,” Michael said.

The Kennedys fed 585kg of meal last year and sold 453kg of milk solids per cow (they produced 472kg/cow). The herd is almost entirely Holstein Friesian. Herd EBI is €102 with €23 for milk and €51 for fertility. Empty rate in 2016 was 18%. A selenium deficiency was identified.

The Kennedys gradually phased out a substantial beef enterprise as cow numbers grew.

To cope with the extra cows, four more units were added on to the 12-unit milking parlour and the collecting yard was enlarged.

The Kennedys 16-unit milking parlour

Extra cows were housed in straw-bedded sheds. A new cubicle shed is planned.

The big lesson from the Kennedys is the effect of lower output with a younger herd.

While overall output is high at 453kg of milk solids sold in 2016, they are targeting an output of 500kg milk solids per cow when the herd fully matures.

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