Jim Delahunty and his family expanded from milking 41 cows 10 years ago to milking 120 cows this year on a 30ha milking block by buying quota and on-farm investment. I couldn’t make the public walk but, this week,

I called into Jim to ask two questions – firstly, how he manages four cows/hectare on the milking platform and, secondly, since his days winning prizes in the Protein 350 competition (almost 15 years ago), how his breeding policy has changed.

On stocking rate, Jim is clear. “I’ve a mainly dry block of ground here at home and I have a 30ha outfarm that this year will rear the 50 heifer calves, 50 in-calf heifers and provide silage for the winter. At home is simply a milking block and I take out the odd paddock for round bales to manage grass but that’s it.

‘‘At this stocking rate, you have to be always on top of the game especially at the back end of the year, if you want to extend rotation and build up grass for the autumn. That’s why I say by mid-August, I’ll start asking questions on whether she is in calf, in milk or in a trailer off the farm.”

Spring feed

Jim will feed out quality round-bale silage and up to 4kg of meal per head to keep cows at grass in the spring. To date this year, Jim has fed about 380kg of meal per head. At the back end, he will reduce cow numbers slightly by removing cows not in calf earlier rather than later.

The top of the hills are beginning to burn, but the rain on Saturday night helped to freshen things a little, but that’s all. Jim will need more rain to keep growth ticking over 60kg per day.

Where does he go from here, if he wants to milk more cows? He said: “I’m not sure, but in terms of numbers I think I’m nearly maxed out unless we can start growing that bit more grass or utilising more of what is growing. I’m aiming for the 500kg of milk solids per cow. Last year, the herd did 475kg of milk solids and about 25% of the herd are seven lactations plus.”

One of the targets visitors will hear about at the Moorepark open day is to aim for 5.5 lactations per cow. Jim is already there. There is still a strong British Friesian backbone in the herd and most of the milking herd have about 30% Friesian and 70% Holstein.

For the last 10 years, Jim has been an EBI list advocate for sire selection. I remember when I was on Jim’s farm 10 years ago and he was using predominantly British Friesian sires. We used to joke with Jim that he would never move from using those kind of sires but he did what he said he’d do and, since 2006, he has pretty much picked from the top of the EBI list.

If you walk into his herd today, you can still see the British Friesian influence in the cows. However, young and old alike are all excellent functional cows with good udders and legs. Herd EBI is now €220 and Jim has individual cows milking that are over €300 EBI.

This week, the herd is milking just shy of 24.3 litres per day at 4.12% fat and 3.52% protein (1.8kg milk solids). This leads me to the question on where Jim’s breeding goes next? He said: “I’m conscious that I don’t want a very big cow for my mainly grass-based system but, so far, I haven’t got that from the EBI list, so why should I change? Living in Ireland, I still think we want a cow to have the capacity to deliver 6,000 litres and good percentages.’’

Aim

‘‘My aim is a strong functional cow with good fertility. No, I don’t think another breed can help the matter. Yes, some individual youngstock are getting a bit leggy or the Holstein percentage is 90% but, at the moment, it’s not a problem. Bulls such as SOK have done a good job for me and we have some great stock in the herd from top EBI bulls,” Jim said.

  • Milking 120 cows/50 heifer calves and 49 maidens.
  • Grass grown is 13.5t DM/ha – best paddock 17t, worst 12t.
  • Farming 30ha (milking block), 29ha (outblock two miles away).
  • Overall stocking rate: 2.75 cows/ha.
  • Milk yield: 475kg per cow (delivered and calves reared in 2014).
  • Gross margin: €4,705/ha.
  • In the last 10 years, stocking rate has increased from 1.7 cows/ha to 2.7 cows/ha.
  • Bulls used: JRE, PBM, RPA, YGD, SEW and GZY.
  • Money invested since 2006 was about €410,000 (buildings/machinery/quota costs) for 70 extra cows. That’s the equivalent of €5,800 per extra cow in the herd since then. This excludes the opportunity cost of the cow – estimate €1,400/cow.
  • Focus on breeding for results

    Breeding is key to the success of the Delahunty operation and Jim will put substantial effort into making sure breeding goes well. Having enough labour is key to having the time to focus on watching cows and picking out cows for AI, so Jim feels it is money well spent to invest in help during the breeding season to free some of his time.

    Jim will carry out three weeks of tail-painting and recording heats in advance of the start of the breeding season, so that he has strong information when breeding actually starts. On this farm, 100% AI is used and, this year, the first three weeks of Friesian sexed semen was used on cows and heifers. It is early days in terms of results, but Jim isn’t happy with conception rates using the sexed semen on either cows or the maiden heifers.

    After the sexed semen, ordinary conventional semen is used and then Aberdeen Angus AI is used. The main sires used this year include JRE, PBM, RPA, YGD, SEW, and GZY.

    The other big change as cow numbers have increased for Jim has been increased constraints on labour and time.

    In the past, Jim has had cattle on the farm but as replacement numbers increased Jim now aims to have three groups of stock – cows, calves and maiden heifers. These are all priority stock and the focus goes on these groups. Jim no longer does any topping and silage; baling and slurry is contracted out. The parlour was expanded from 10 to 16 units but there is no milking for at least one month in winter.

    The other issue which Jim feels takes up time at a very busy time of the year is feeding biestings to newborn calves, so he will feed calves colostrum with a stomach tube to save on time.