A new milking parlour, winter housing and slurry storage is currently under construction for 200 milking cows. Lyons Estate, near Newcastle in Co Dublin, but also close to Celbridge, Co Kildare, has a long history and tradition with agricultural science and veterinary students in Ireland.

The farm straddles the boundaries of a demonstration, research and commercial dairy, sheep and tillage farm. University College Dublin (UCD) provides the facility to allow agricultural and veterinary students a chance to see experiments in action, upskill themselves using different handling techniques and demonstrate best practice.

A major investment project to upgrade the buildings and facilities is planned for the coming months to allow Lyons continue as a research and education facility. The investment is necessary to bring the facilities up to modern-day standards and provide a safe environment for training students.

Karina Pierce, dairy lecturer in UCD, said: “As part of our Level 8 degree programme, our dairy business programme and our certificate in dairy herd health, we need a facility that can demonstrate and allow teaching safely. A revamped Lyons Estate can provide that and we have already started building the new facility with a view to completion by early 2015.”

Herd growth

The plan is to increase the dairy herd at Lyons from 100 to 200 cows but maintain about 40% autumn/winter production. In order for this to happen, the land in commercial tillage production at Lyons will be reduced to allow more land for the dairy enterprise. The sheep flock will be maintained at around 350 ewes. As part of increasing cow numbers, high-EBI heifers will be sourced from around Ireland. Already some have been purchased. The intention is to source some of the highest-quality, highest-EBI animals with a heavy weighting on milk EBI rather than fertility EBI. Animals with an EBI over €220 will be sourced from commercial farms.

As well as increasing cow numbers, the plan is that a subset of the 200-strong herd will be run as a separate unit. This subset herd, of 60 to 65 cows, will be act as the demonstration herd which cannot be used for research or experimental purposes. It is envisaged that these cows will form a high-producing spring milk herd.

Capital investment

The capital investment for the project will be funded through “gift agreements” with industry stakeholders. The primary stakeholders involved to date include Dairymaster, Glanbia, Devenish Nutrition, the Irish Holstein Friesian Association, Munster Cattle Breeding Group and Progressive Genetics.

UCD’s Finbar Mulligan said: “Money from stakeholders is going to be used for the capital development and is being accepted as a no-strings-attached investment in the facility. Without this level of funding, this investment could not go ahead.”

The objective

The herd will comprise spring- and autumn-calving groups and the emphasis initially will be on the role of supplementation in a grass-based system to maximise production and improve milk quality throughout the season.

According to Karina Pierce: “The intention is not to duplicate research work already up and going but we want to look at situations where land bank is limited, where there are seasonality issues, the cost of infrastructure, and liquid/winter production.”

Lyons Estate

Lyons Research Farm consists of over 580 acres near the village of Newcastle in Co Dublin. It is used for teaching and research field activities by the UCD College of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine.