The father and son team of John and John Russell farm on the edge of Lough Swilly near Mannorcunningham, Co Donegal. Land in the area is excellent, with neighbouring farms growing lovely looking barely and potatoes. But it is growing grass that the Russell’s have become experts at.

When they became Focus Farmers in the Aurivo farm profitability programme in 2014, they were growing 12.1t/ha and utilising 9.7t/ha.

Fast forward to this year and they are expecting to grow 14.5t/ha utilising 12t/ha of this.

An extra 20 acres of adjoining land was also purchased in the meantime and between this and more grass being utilised on the existing land block, cow numbers have increased from 132 to 170.

Some of the 20 acres purchased by the Russell’s in 2013

The milking platform is 56ha, so the stocking rate is three cows/ha. There were three main reasons given for the increase in grass growth.

The first was the renewed focus on soil fertility. Over the years this was let slip and soil indexes dropped. Three rounds of two bags per acre of 18:6:12 is now being spread on the paddocks that are low.

Reseeded fields on the Russell farm.

More reseeding has been carried out. The Russell’s have been using some of the best varieties including Tyrella, Abergain and Aberchoice among others. Around 70% of the farm has been reseeded since 2009.

Grassland management in summer has improved, with the Russells walking the farm at least once a week and removing surplus paddocks as bales.

Before they might have grazed a high-cover and topped it afterwards, now they no longer top. Protein has increased by 0.1% in two years.

The other big change has been in grazing infrastructure. Extra roadways and spur roads were installed to get better access to fields in spring and autumn.

A new spur roadway cost the Russell’s €5/m including fencing.

Paddocks grazed in early spring grow on average about 1t/ha more compared to paddocks grazed in late spring.

Pan busting has been used to break up a compacted surface layer and the Russells find that grass growth increases after pan busting.

Milk solids sold per cow was 424kg in 2014 and is expected to be 460kg this year.

Around 700kg of meal was fed last year to the Holstein Friesian herd.

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