The winners of the Grassland Farmer of the Year competition were announced at an awards ceremony at Teagasc Moorepark on Thursday.

Colin Doherty was announced by Liam Herlihy, chairman of the Teagasc authority, as both the winner in the dairy category and the overall winner.

Martin Heydon TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, was also in attendance and congratulated all finalists and winners for their achievements.

Farming system

Colin Doherty is farming outside the town of Adare in Co Limerick. Farming with his father Bryan, the pair have grown cow numbers from 90 cows in 2015 to milk over 230 cows this year, which will be a stocking rate of three cows/ha on the milking block.

Colin impressed the judges with his knowledge of grass and clover and how he uses grass and clover swards on his farm to drive milk production.

Colin Doherty's milking platform.

The farm grew close to 15t DM/ha last year from around 210kg N/ha of chemical nitrogen. Some red clover has been planted on the silage blocks on the out farm, which will reduce the farms overall reliance on chemical nitrogen.

Just over 30% of the milking platform had good clover content in 2021 and this was evident even when the judges visited the farm in late November last year.

Colin Doherty has incorporated clover across the farm.

The herd of Jersey crossbred cows produced 430kg MS/cow from 520kg of meal fed per cow last year. Colin's aim is to deliver 1kg of milk solids for every 1kg of liveweight and feed no more than 500kg of meal.

Accepting the award, Colin thanked his parents Ruth and Bryan for their support and Teagasc for the advice they have given him over the last 10 years of his farming career.

Other winners

Other category winners include Aidan Maguire, who won the drystock category. Aidan is a beef farmer running a dairy calf-to-beef system outside Navan, Co Meath.

Brendan Walsh from Ballylooby in Co Tipperary won the sustainability category, while Brigid Carroll from Ballycanew in Co Wexford won the innovation category.

Sean O’Donnell from Ballina in Co Mayo won the mixed soils category, and Philip Tyndall from Bunclody in Co Wexford won the young farmer category.