Peter Brophy Paulstown, Co Kilkenny

Former suckler farmer Peter Brophy from Paulstown, Co Kilkenny, started milk production in 2017 with 108 cows. The herd has gradually increased to 180 cows in 2021, which leaves a high stocking rate of 4 cows/ha, but Peter plans to reduce cow numbers by 20 next year, bringing stocking rate back to 3.5 cows/ha.

The overall stocking rate is 2.6/2.7 livestock units/acre, with heifers and silage produced on the home block as the milking platform is the outfarm.

The Brophy farm is in a very low rainfall area and this year the farm only got 500mm of rainfall up to the start of October. Soils are very light and free draining and when the judges visited in late November, Peter still had the milking cows out by day and there was no damage being done.

Peter has been measuring grass since his beef farming days and the farm grows an average of 13.5tDM/ha, but this is back a bit in 2021, due to low growth rates for most of the mid-season and autumn.

A good share of the farm has clover present and fields with high clover content get less chemical nitrogen, typically 13 units/acre after grazing compared with 20 units/acre on the fields with less clover.

Peter reckons about one-third of the milking platform has good clover, one-third has medium clover content while the final third has low clover content. The lower clover content fields are being oversown with clover using a Guttler seeder.

With such a high stocking rate, Peter needs to have a high opening average farm cover of 1,100kg/ha by 1 February and he expects to grow around 5kg/day over the winter. The herd of Jersey crossbred cows are on track to deliver 550kg MS/cow from 1.1t of meal per cow in 2021.

Sean O’Donnell Ballina, Co Mayo

Sean O’Donnell is dairy farming in Behy Beg, Ballina, Co Mayo. When Sean took over the running of the farm from his father in September 2008, there were 42 Holstein Friesian cows being milked on a 19ha milking platform.

Since then on the home farm, through purchases and leases, the milking platform has been increased to 33ha and the herd has increased to 115 Jersey crossbred cows.

In 2017, Sean leased 36ha just 3km away from the home farm. He developed this block into a second milking platform. With 100 crossbred cows being milked on the second platform, the total cow numbers in 2021 are 215 and the herd EBI is €161. In 2020, 501kg MS/cow was produced from 700kg of meal. Sean has put a huge focus on growing grass and having the necessary infrastructure to extend the grazing season in the shoulders of the year. With an average of 1.5m of rainfall every year and a variation of soil types across the farm, Sean has developed a large network of roadways which allows good access to paddocks.

Gate handles at almost every fence post ensure that during the shoulders of the year, the cows never have to go in or out the same gap twice. Water troughs are positioned in each paddock to allow the paddocks to be divided easily.

More recently, there was an underpass put in to reduce the risk and labour associated with crossing the road to access part of the milking platform. Two cow bridges were also built in 2021 to eliminate the need for cows to walk across the river Brosna that runs through the farm.

In 2020, the home farm grew just over 15tDM/ha and in 2021, up to the middle of November, 12.6tDM/ha was grown. In total, 205kg N/ha was spread in 2021, including that provided in slurry. In 2020, Sean started to over sow paddocks with clover in an effort to increase the sustainability of the farm and reduce the level of chemical nitrogen by 10% each year. In 2021, 10% of the platform was reseeded and 5% was over sown with 2kg/ac of naked clover seed.

About the competition

The Grassland Farmer of the Year competition is part of the Grass 10 programme spearheaded by Teagasc with industry sponsors AIB, Grassland Agro, FBD, Department of Agriculture and the Irish Farmers Journal.

Competing farmers are shortlisted for a visit by the judges based on a desktop analysis of grass growth, number of grazings, nitrogen use, production and costs.

There are 10 finalists in this year’s competition. The judges are Bridget Lynch and John Maher from Teagasc, Liz Hyland from Department of Agriculture, Colin Heaney from FBD, Bryan Doocey from AIB, John O’Loughlin from Grassland Agro and Aidan Brennan from the Irish Farmers Journal.

Farmers are judged on grassland management, sustainability, grazing infrastructure and health and safety.