Simon Breen, his wife Carol and their children Julia, Sarah and Peter, farm alongside Simon’s parents, Peter and Sheila, on their 243-cow farm in Emly in the west of Tipperary.

Simon is the second generation here: his parents bought the original 56ha in 1979, and three generations have since grown it into a 127ha business that comfortably supports two families.

This spring they were named the very first milk supplier of the year for the newly merged Arrabawn/Tipperary Co-op, an honour the family describe as representing not just their own yard, but also their parish and co-op.

The herd delivered 501kg of milk solids per cow in 2025 from just 708kg of meal, and sits in the top 1% of the co-op for both butterfat and protein. Most telling of all, this is a highly efficient herd, delivering 1kg of milk solids for every 1kg of cow bodyweight.

Simon explains that “every farmer needs to work out their own system, if you can’t explain that system in less than five minutes, it’s too complicated”.

Twelve years of crossbreeding built the herd he wanted. The last pure Friesian, a remarkable 13th-lactation cow, left only this year; Friesians were crossed first with Jerseys, then with New Zealand Kiwi-cross genetics, chasing fertility, high solids and a low carbon footprint.

Quality is decided long before the cluster goes on. This has been a chlorine-free dairy since 2017, years ahead of the requirement. TBC results spend most of the year in single figures, and the SCC is held comfortably inside target levels.

Grass is the engine behind the solids. The herd is out for 310 days a year, from early February to mid-December. Simon walks the farm and measures grass 50 times a year on PastureBase – “you can’t manage something you don’t measure”, he says. He has pushed clover up to 27% of the grazing platform, while 77% of the silage ground now has red clover.

Technology is useful only when it earns its place. Cow collars have been used for a decade to support heat detection and daily health surveillance.

The environmental work runs well past the paddock gate. The farm’s carbon footprint sits at 0.76kg of CO2 equivalent per kg of fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM). A 1.25ha reed bed polishes grey water from the yard; 2ha of new native woodland, alder, birch, rowan, oak and whitethorn, and a fresh 1km of whitethorn hedge have gone in, with a solar application pending. None of it would work without the people. Peter and Sheila are still hands-on with calves and herding; Carol runs calf-rearing and the grassland discussions, and the three children all have jobs in the yard, alongside a settled outside team led by full-timer Gleidson.

Family life is protected as deliberately as the herd. Beyond the farm gate, Simon never misses his daughters’ GAA matches, and he chairs the parish text-alert group, sings in the Emly church choir and brings farm-safety talks to the local pre-school.

Simon Breen breeds a cow that looks like nothing special, but performs like everything. It is little wonder ArraTipp chose this Emly family to carry its colours in its first year.