Build up experience and increase your skillset by working on other farms and businesses was the key advice for young people looking to get started in farming, according to the hosts of Kinisla’s on-farm event.

Hosted on Thursday last by the 2025 Milk Quality and Sustainability winners, the Casey family in Causeway, Co Kerry, about 320 people attended the walk, where they heard from host John Casey and his brother Micheál.

John has been farming at home since the end of 2014, while Micheál took out a 15-year lease on a farm at nearby Ballyheigiue at the end of 2023, where he is now farming in his own right. Experience

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Building up as much experience as possible has stood to the pair and along with a focus on labour efficiency, good genetics and grass management has seen them succeed.

Being good at all of those aspects of dairy farming was evident in the performance of John’s herd.

In 2024, they produced 514kg MS/cow and this was surpassed last year, as John’s cows delivered an average of 540kg MS/cow. Attention to detail and always ensuring cows were well fed was key to this.

John did 34 grass measuring walks last year and grew 11.2t DM/ha and had an average pre-grazing cover of 1,302kg DM/ha.

Weather has made getting those covers right for cows a challenging task at times. Tucked into the north Kerry coastline and looking across at Loop Head, Casey’s farm is within 500m of the sea, with some paddocks going out to the cliff top. There are advantages and disadvantages to the proximity to the Atlantic.

Windy location

John said: “In autumn 2024, we closed up with an average farm cover (AFC) of 850kg DM/ha and we opened up in spring 2025 with a cover of 650kg DM/ha. That was due to storm Éowyn in January 2025.

"We get a lot of wind here anyway, but because of that storm, we had a couple of paddocks that weren’t in the first or second rotations, so we gave it a bit of fertiliser that wouldn’t be uncommon in this area. It’s not that we’d get salt burn as such, but it’s more wind burn.”

To compensate for that loss of grass, he fed a bit more meal last year. There were also changes made to the yard, allowing for extra feeding spaces to make sure his cows were adequately fed. This saw the amount of feeding bays increase from nine to 20.

For more on the Caseys, read next week’s edition of the Irish Farmers Journal.