Diarmud and Beth Casey are a farming couple on a mission. Together with Diarmuid’s mother Joan and their young children, Kian, Thady and Miah, they are milking 72 cows at Kiskeam in north Cork, with plans to go to 85 cows next year and 100 cows the year after, eventually getting to 120.

With 170 acres in the one block, Diarmuid recognises the opportunity and is ready to grasp it. He has lots of experience, having completed the Green Cert in Pallaskenry in 2010, which included a placement in New Zealand. He went back to New Zealand again after completing the dairy herd management course at Kildalton College, but eventually ended up working as a farm manager on a large confinement system in Saudi Arabia.

He came back home in 2018 and started a partnership with his father Batt, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Along with farming with his father, Diarmuid worked off farm as a professional hoof trimmer since 2018, but gave this up in January of this year to concentrate fully on the farm.

Kiskeam is one of the places in Ireland with the highest rainfall, so farming in the region can be a challenge, but the Casey farm is high and dry, and well laid out, with good grazing infrastructure. Diarmuid is focussing on improving soil fertility, taking samples every two years and acting on them.

As an indicator of the quality of the soil and a reflection of the quality of the farming that went before him, both potash and phosphorus levels are high on Diarmuid’s farm. The main area for improvement is soil pH and on the day that the judges visited in early July, there were lorry loads of lime being spread.

Land quality is good but the rainfall in the area is high.

Another area Diarmuid is focused on is grass quality, as he is embarking on a major reseeding programme. You could say improving the soil pH is acting on what happens below the ground, while reseeding is acting on what happens above the ground. With a low stocking rate for the next few years, Diarmuid feels now is a good time to get a high proportion of the farm reseeded.

Diarmuid was spreading lime on the grazing paddocks just before the judges arrived.

In terms of facilities, the farm is well laid out for the current numbers, with a 12-unit parlour and housing for 80 cows. Diarmuid plans to increase cubicle accommodation over time.

Last year, the herd delivered 481kg MS/cow to Kinisla, plus about 20 to 25kg of milk solids fed to calves, as all calves have traditionally been kept on the farm. This year, Diarmuid has 16 beef calves in addition to 24 heifer calves, which he plans to sell as yearlings.

The 12 unit milking parlour on the Casey farm at Kiskeam.

In terms of meal feeding, last year he fed around 1.1t of meal per cow on average. The EBI of the herd is on the low side at €96, and this is something Diarmuid hopes might increase after he gets the herd genotyped as part of the National Genotyping Programme.

This years’ crop of calves are nearly all Holstein Friesian, as are the vast majority of the cows, but Diarmuid is considering crossing these with Jersey. The herd is fully closed and Diarmuid has a zero vaccination policy.

Raised water troughs on the Casey farm.