Declan White spoke to a packed auditorium in the Horse and Jockey Hotel, Thurles, Co Tipperary, on Tuesday evening at the once-a-day milking conference.

Declan is milking 250 cows near Clonakilty, Co Cork.

For the past six years, he has been milking his cows once a day (OAD).

“The only reason we went OAD was because of the superlevy," said Declan.

Above milk quota

"In 2012, we had increased cow numbers over and above our milk quota.

"I remember when the milk statement came at the end of September, it said the superlevy situation was bad.

"We decided that evening not to milk the cows and here we are today,” he said.

We realised fairly quickly that it suited our farm

Despite initially planning to go back twice-a-day milking after quotas went, Declan continued milking OAD and has now completed six full years of OAD milking.

“We realised fairly quickly that it suited our farm.

"Our home block is 45ha around the yard and we have another 40ha block 800m up a public road.

"OAD milking allowed us to milk cows on this block, so we more or less doubled our milking platform,” he said.

Keep things simple

Declan says the key to the system is to keep things simple.

Cows get fresh grass when they need it. He will move them on to a new paddock in between milkings if they have that paddock grazed out.

The 250-cow farm is operated by himself and one part-time employee, who works on the farm until lunchtime each day.

Declan says OAD milking has dramatically improved his work-life balance.

Farm stats

In 2017, the fully crossbred herd produced 332kg MS/cow, but this increased in 2018 to 356kg MS/cow.

The calving interval is 365 days. Ninety percent of the cows calve within the first six weeks and cows go to grass as soon as they have calved.

The stocking rate on the milking platform is 2.94 cows/ha and there is 32ha of support ground used for heifers and silage.

Declan normally feeds around 200kg of meal, but this increased to 850kg of meal last year due to the bad spring and summer drought.

He is consistently achieving a milk price 7c/l above the co-op average

Total cost of production, according to the 2017 profit monitor, was €2.39/kg MS, but Declan said this will increase for 2018.

Average milking price was 44.2c.l in 2018, while the Carbery average was 37.5c/l.

He said he is consistently achieving a milk price 7c/l above the co-op average. This could be 10c/l above base milk price.

Fly in the ointment

The fly in the ointment, according to Declan, is SCC.

In autumn 2017, he used a lower-cost dry cow tube, which he says cost him in higher SCC during 2018.

Average SCC in 2017 was 192,000, but this increased to 260,000 in 2018.

He has invested in better facilities since, with every cow having a cubicle this winter.

Declan says this should enable him to milk on a bit longer in the autumn also.

He still plans to have the cows dry for December and January.

Case study

Also speaking at the conference was Teagasc specialist George Ramsbottom.

George presented data on a case study of a farmer in his first year of OAD milking.

The farm went from milking 124 cows stocked at 3.1 cows/ha in 2017 on twice a day, to 141 cows stocked at 3.5 cows/ha milked OAD in 2018.

The cows were fed 750kg of meal and produced 332kg MS/cow in 2018.

The output was lower than expected and the meal feeding, due to the bad weather, was higher than expected.

The farmer had predicted a cash surplus of €146,000 in 2018, but the actual cash surplus was less at €105,000.

This was primarily due to lower output and higher costs, particularly feed costs, which were €20,000 higher than predicted.