Limerick farmer Niall Moloney has been announced as the winner of the Kinisla Milk Quality and Sustainability awards for 2026. Milking 176 cows with his wife Ann and parents Margaret and Jerry at Crecora, outside Limerick city, Niall impressed the judges with his excellent milk quality and commitment to sustainability across a number of metrics.
Niall qualified as a quantity surveyor in the early 2010s, but instead of putting his skills to use in the construction sector, he decided to focus instead on farming and worked alongside Jerry, while also working locally.
He used this period to develop and hone his technical skills in farming – focusing on managing grass and cows. When an opportunity came up to lease a neighbouring block in 2015, the Moloney enterprise increased in scale and Niall came back home to farm full time.
Performance is excellent, with over 15.5t DM/ha of grass grown last year, up significantly on the 2024 level, but back to what Niall would expect the farm to deliver. While there are some parts of the farm that are low lying, most of the 53ha milking platform is excellent quality and free draining.
This allows Niall to get cows out to grass early in spring and this year, despite the bad spring he was still able to get cows out grazing for three hours morning and evening for the second half of February and all of March.
Milk solids production is also good, with the herd delivering 524kg MS/cow last year from just over 1t of meal per cow. However, due to the severe drought in recent weeks, it’s likely that the amount of meal fed will exceed 1t/cow in 2026.
In terms of sustainability, Niall believes there is more to sustainability than just environment;
“The end game of sustainability is that when I decide to retire or when my time is up that there is a farm here for whoever wants it. In that there are three things. One, the farm has to be profitable and we have to live a life outside of farming, and that takes money.
“Two is the environment and we have to mind it and look after it, whether that’s the birds and the bees or the water and the ground itself, it has to be looked after. The third part is the social side of it or the social licence to farm and that the product we’re selling is wanted and the quality of it is high enough,” he says. Niall is heavily involved in the Evolve programme, claiming payments last year in areas such as protected urea, milk recording, herd genetics and protecting waterways.
Michelle O’Keeffe is the full-time employee on the farm, along with two part-timers, Padraig Byrnes and John Quinn. Speaking at the awards ceremony held in Adare this week, CEO of Kinisla Pat Murphy congratulated the Moloney farm team;
“Congratulations to Niall, Ann and Jerry Moloney on this well-deserved recognition. The Moloney family has demonstrated a consistent commitment to excellence across every aspect of their farming operation, from milk quality and grassland management to farm performance and sustainability.
“Their achievement is a reflection of years of hard work, dedication and a strong focus on continuous improvement. We are delighted to recognise the Moloney family as the 2026 Kinisla Milk Quality & Sustainability Award winners.”
Runners up in the competition for 2026 are the Irwin family from Kilmeedy, Co. Limerick. Brothers Nelius and Peter are farming with their parents Liam and Bridie.
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