James Taylor farms in partnership with his mum Wendy and dad William on the spectacular Antrim coastline just outside Portrush. Currently, they milk 270 spring calving dairy cows on a 104-hectare milking platform. All calves are reared as either dairy replacements or dairy beef calves taken to slaughter on a two-year finishing system.
The Taylors moved to supply Tirán Co-op in January 2025 in order to avail of the A+B-C milk payment system. That change increased milk price by 1p/litre in 2025, based on the high composition milk being produced by the crossbred herd on the farm.
Conversion and farm system
Prior to dairy conversion in 2017, James undertook a new entrant course in dairy farming with Teagasc. This greatly helped to inform his approach to the grass-based system of farming which he wanted to pursue.
The farm was converted from beef to dairying in 2019 and started producing milk during the spring of 2020.
Existing cattle housing was converted to suit dairy cows with little difficulty and a new 50-point GEA rotary parlour was installed. A lined plastic-covered slurry lagoon was also installed to create adequate winter slurry storage.
The development has continued each year to further improve the system. This year, a new water system with a 50mm loop supply has been put in with extra drinkers to allow more extended grazing during the shoulders of the year.
Soil fertility is evaluated every year and, from a low base, is now approaching desired levels.
The specialised grass-based seasonal calving system being adopted by the Taylors is unusual in Northern Ireland.
James is delighted with the experience of milking cows so far and the farm details are outlined in Table 1.
Genetics
After seeing spring-calving dairy systems as part of the new entrant course, James purchased high EBI crossbred in-calf heifers from the south and has continued using crossbreeding over the last seven years. He now mixes Irish and New Zealand genetics. Calving starts on 20 February and runs to 30 April. Breeding starts on 20 May for cows and 1 June for heifers.
Next year, as part of the newly announced Bovine Genetics Genotyping Scheme, James hopes to genotype the entire herd and get an EBI value for each cow. He is very clear on the cow he wants on the farm.
“The ideal cow for my farm is a 520 kg bodyweight cow capable of producing 5,800 litres of milk at 5% butterfat and 4% protein, using less than one tonne of concentrates, and with an empty rate below 10% in 11 weeks.”
Currently, he’s using a three-breed rotation between Jersey crossbreds and Irish and New Zealand Holstein-Friesian sires to generate the next generation. He also uses sexed semen and has heat detection collars on the cows which has worked well. In contrast, he has been disappointed with the conception rate to sexed semen in recent years with heifers and has returned to using conventional semen this year. He mainly uses Aberdeen Angus bulls to mop up as these provide the ideal dairy-beef animals to finish within two years.
Animal health
Overall, the herd has very good fertility with less than 10% empty in 11 weeks of breeding most years. Unfortunately, there was an IBR outbreak on the farm in early March this year which had a knock-on effect on subsequent herd fertility with an overall empty rate of 15%.
Calf health has been good and calves are vaccinated for IBR, RSV, clostridial diseases and lungworm. Calves generally only receive wormers during late summer as dung samples show a very low level of worm burden on the farm during summer.
Cows receive IBR, clostridials, rotovac corona, BVD, lepto, salmonella and bluetongue vaccines. Like many other farms across Northern Ireland, TB is an ongoing frustration on the farm and the Taylor herd was locked up again this year. Regular TB outbreaks are one of the main reasons for finishing all calves to beef on the farm.
Lameness is not a big issue as the herd are footbathed each week and the roadway networks around the farm are excellent.
James is also very happy with somatic cell count (SCC) at 150,000 cells/ml across the year. Selective dry cow is done based on six milk recordings each year, with 20% of cows receiving antibiotics at drying off.
A local vet looks at the various SCC reports to identify which animals need antibiotics. The herd also undertakes two Johnes disease tests each year.
Grazing
There have been 35 grass covers done so far this year.
“We do a grass walk each week on the farm and every five days during the peak growth period in summer. Post-grazing residuals are 4-4.5cm but we’re not afraid to use a topper during summer, if needed, to correct residuals”.
The Taylors reseed 7-10% of the farm each year with high Pasture Profit Index (PPI) varieties, such as Abergain and Aberchoice, and including two kg of clover seed. The newer swards on the farm are much better to grow grass. Overall, 2026 has been another good year for grass and James expects 12 tDM/ha to be achieved by the end of October which is very similar to other parts of Ireland. Based on adequate slurry storage, the Taylors are making good use of slurry and a low level of chemical N application is required (133kg N/ha).
Work organisation
In addition to James and his dad William, there are two full-time staff on the farm who work a five-day week and are supported by relief milkers when they are off.
James estimates that he and the farm team are working approximately 45 hours per week, although that varies from season to season.
James starts at 6am during the main season and everyone is finished and gone by 5.30pm.
When the herd are fully housed from mid-November, they’re on once a day and everything is dry for Christmas.
When I questioned the need to finish the beef animals, James suggested that: “Dairy-beef is a safety value when the herd has been frequently restricted by TB.
“The system is still a profitable enterprise and increases the overall labour efficiency of the farm.”
Financial performance
According to AHDB, which reviews the financial performance of dairy herds across the UK, higher profits across all systems are achieved through strict cost control and maximising milk from forage.
This is very similar to dairy farming in ROI.
Indeed, a recent study from the University of Reading, using farm data from UK dairy herds between 2017 to 2020, has shown that compact spring calving systems achieved higher profit levels (+4p/l) compared to all-year-round calving systems during the study period.
The Taylors do their financial benchmarking each year through Farmgate Consultancy and as part of the Ardglass Dairy Discussion Group.
Since entering dairying seven years ago, the farm has been highly profitable, with 2022 and 2025 being record years similar to ROI.
James also expects that 2026 will be a strong year financially for the farm and has focused on keeping costs under control.
James believes that the biggest improvement area for the farm now is to increase the six-week calving rate and estimates that lifting that, from 72 to 85%, would add an additional £30,000 to farm profits each year.
More generally, James is hoping that continuing to invest in reseeding and improved soil fertility will allow the farm to grow more grass, feed less meal, and produce more profitable milk from grass in the future.
Staying informed
James is a member of the Ardglass Dairy Discussion group which has been a major source of guidance during the development of the dairy farm operation.
James also credits his vet and Farmgate Consultancy as key assets to his business in terms of animal health and financial benchmarking for the farm.
Spring calving
In terms of unique aspects of spring calving systems in NI, James points out that the system he has chosen is a minority in the region. He is hoping that the new genotyping scheme will allow his herd to make greater genetic progress over time by breeding replacements from the best cows.
Compared to the south, there is also no tax incentive for long-term leases in NI and so a similar tax incentive would be welcome to provide more security for everyone involved in leasing on a longer-term basis.
He also believes that more should be done to address TB outbreaks, a huge problem which has not been adequately addressed. He would like to see more training opportunities for farm staff in grassland management and budgeting to train up new staff to his type of system.
Comment
It was a real pleasure to visit the Taylors farm and see the progress they have made in such a short period. The Taylors have adopted a very simple system, using a lot of grass to produce milk profitably on their farm. The transition to A+B-C has been a great step for the farm to realise the true value of the high composition milk being produced, while genotyping the herds next year will also advance the rate of genetic gain.