This farm trades as PMC dairy farm, recognising the names of the three key people involved; Pat, Miriam and Ciaran.
Ciaran Hanrahan always had a keen interest in farming, nurtured by his uncle Pat, which culminated in his attendance at Kildalton Agricultural College, where he completed a professional diploma in Dairy Farm Management.
He graduated in 2014 and developed the official partnership with Pat and Miriam shortly after. Miriam worked off farm for a number of years but has always been involved in the farm accounts and record keeping.
The farm is located in the valley between the Comeragh mountain range and the Knockmealdown mountains.
The PMC herd lying out on the side of the hill when we visited the farm in mid-August.
It starts at 550ft above sea level, stretching up almost 900ft above sea level at the top of the farm. It’s clearly not easy to farm and this has shaped a lot of the investment through the years. The total area farmed is 122ha, with 87ha available to the cows following the recent addition of 24ha across from the farmyard.
A lot of work goes into maximising milk quality on the farm.
The farm has invested in fencing and farm roadways to maximise days at grass.
All cows are stripped twice a day and records are kept to build a good background profile for the herd. Selective dry cow antibiotics are used and in 2018 just 33% of the herd got antibiotics at dry off.
So far, the average SCC of cows that didn’t get antibiotics is very good. The early season milk recording showed that cows that didn’t get antibiotics had a much lower SCC than those that got a sealer and an antibiotic.
A view of the straw bedded area for calving on the left and some of the cubicles in the background.
The facilities are very good on this farm. There is a cubicle per cow and a straw lie-back area for cows near calving. Animal handling facilities are in place and all areas in between are concreted and grooved. No milk is sold in January, but about 10% of annual supply is sold in December and February. In 2018, a total 1.9m litres of milk were sold from the farm.
The 24-unit herringbone with swing-over arms and automatic feeders.
Herd EBI is a very respectable €139 and replacement stock EBI is €156 (see Key Stats). They have 72 in-calf heifers ready to enter the herd and 60 heifer calves.
A view up the farmyard at Ballinamult with the 30t feed bin and a load of lime ready to be spread prior to reseeding a field.
Calving runs between 12 and 15 weeks and bull calves are mainly sold at the mart or from the yard.
In 2018, 264 cows were milked, up slightly to 273 cows in 2019. A total 152,000kg of milk solids were delivered in 2018 with about 1,200kg of meal fed per cow.
This farm trades as PMC dairy farm, recognising the names of the three key people involved; Pat, Miriam and Ciaran.
Ciaran Hanrahan always had a keen interest in farming, nurtured by his uncle Pat, which culminated in his attendance at Kildalton Agricultural College, where he completed a professional diploma in Dairy Farm Management.
He graduated in 2014 and developed the official partnership with Pat and Miriam shortly after. Miriam worked off farm for a number of years but has always been involved in the farm accounts and record keeping.
The farm is located in the valley between the Comeragh mountain range and the Knockmealdown mountains.
The PMC herd lying out on the side of the hill when we visited the farm in mid-August.
It starts at 550ft above sea level, stretching up almost 900ft above sea level at the top of the farm. It’s clearly not easy to farm and this has shaped a lot of the investment through the years. The total area farmed is 122ha, with 87ha available to the cows following the recent addition of 24ha across from the farmyard.
A lot of work goes into maximising milk quality on the farm.
The farm has invested in fencing and farm roadways to maximise days at grass.
All cows are stripped twice a day and records are kept to build a good background profile for the herd. Selective dry cow antibiotics are used and in 2018 just 33% of the herd got antibiotics at dry off.
So far, the average SCC of cows that didn’t get antibiotics is very good. The early season milk recording showed that cows that didn’t get antibiotics had a much lower SCC than those that got a sealer and an antibiotic.
A view of the straw bedded area for calving on the left and some of the cubicles in the background.
The facilities are very good on this farm. There is a cubicle per cow and a straw lie-back area for cows near calving. Animal handling facilities are in place and all areas in between are concreted and grooved. No milk is sold in January, but about 10% of annual supply is sold in December and February. In 2018, a total 1.9m litres of milk were sold from the farm.
The 24-unit herringbone with swing-over arms and automatic feeders.
Herd EBI is a very respectable €139 and replacement stock EBI is €156 (see Key Stats). They have 72 in-calf heifers ready to enter the herd and 60 heifer calves.
A view up the farmyard at Ballinamult with the 30t feed bin and a load of lime ready to be spread prior to reseeding a field.
Calving runs between 12 and 15 weeks and bull calves are mainly sold at the mart or from the yard.
In 2018, 264 cows were milked, up slightly to 273 cows in 2019. A total 152,000kg of milk solids were delivered in 2018 with about 1,200kg of meal fed per cow.
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