The Irish Grassland Association’s annual summer tour is back and this year the event is taking place in west Waterford ton the farms of Michael and Ollie O’Gorman.
In previous years, attendees were required to get a bus from one venue to the other but this year the two host farms are separated by just a bounds ditch.
Michael and Ollie are two cousins farming side by side in Glasha, County Waterford. Both farms are just a stone’s throw from the Tipperary-Waterford border and located in the picturesque setting that is the Nire Valley.
The story of the two farms begins back in 2008, when brothers John and Paddy O’Gorman were milking 190 cows in a partnership as well as finishing 70 beef animals. The partnership had been a long-term arrangement and had been a great success for both men.
As it became clear that both John and Paddy had sons who were interested in dairy farming, they made the decision to split their own partnership and afford each of the lads an opportunity to manage their own dairy businesses.
The farm area was divided evenly in 2009, with John’s son Michael taking over the home yard and Paddy’s son Ollie, moving to a new parlour and yard.
The herd of cows was also split in two. The cows were drafted through the crush based on scanning dates and every second animal went to either Michael or Ollie. The same approach was taken with the youngstock.
Fast forward to today and both men have forged their own unique path. Ollie who is also now in business with his two brothers has scaled up and continued to expand the business by leasing additional units and taking on more land.
Michael has also increased the cow numbers over the years but instead chose to focus on the home block instead of taking on additional units.
While both businesses are performing exceptionally well, there is a range of lessons to be taken from each story on the day.
The first stop of the day is Michael’s farm. Michael is farming with his wife Noreen and they are milking 200 cows across 122ha.
Michael had previously worked as an electrician but always had the desire to dairy farm. In 2008 he made the decision to go home full-time and the day of the split in 2009, Michael began with 61ha, 96 cows and youngstock.
Of the total 122ha, the original 61ha block operates as milking platform with platform stocking rate sitting at 3.3 cows/ha.
Overall stocking rate is closer to 2.3 cows/ha with a number of outblocks used for heifer rearing, silage and some zero-grazing at the shoulders of the year.
The farm is being pushed fairly hard in terms of milking platform stocking rate but Michael doesn’t see it as a big issue for them.
“It is quite high but the stocking rate on the platform was even higher in the past when we were spreading more nitrogen and the droughts were less frequent” he says.
Additional land on the platform is not an option for Michael who is landlocked by a tillage farmer to one side, Ollie’s farm and another dairy farm to the other side of the farm.
Grassland management is a big focus of the farm but the higher platform stocking rate means Michael is forced to feed more supplement than he’d like to fill gaps in the wedge during times of moisture deficits.
In 2025, he fed 1.35t of meal/cow and 0.25 t DM/cow of zero-grazed grass was fed in the autumn.
This level of feeding was above the norm and a good proportion of it was due to the series of prolonged dry spells the farm was hit with during the summer of last year.
Despite the challenging year in terms of weather, cows still produced an average of 568kg’s of milk solids for the year.
The herd comprises of crossbred cows around 520kg’s bodyweight with high PTA’s for fat and protein. The EBI of the herd is €160 and fertility on the farm is also excellent with over 90% six-week calving.
The farm grew 13t DM/ha on average in 2025. The main focus of the stands on Michael’s farm will be the exceptional animal performance, grassland management and the succession story of the farm.
After lunch on Michael’s farm, attendees will cross the road to Ollie’s farm where the focus of the visit will be on the expansion of the original business and how Ollie manages multiple units and the extra people involved with operating at scale.
Ollie who is a graduate of Agricultural Science in UCD is married to Anna and they are involved in running five different dairy units with a total of 970 cows being milked this year.
Starting from the same base as Michael with roughly 61ha’s as a home block, 96 cows and youngstock, Ollie’s business has grown significantly over the years.
Part of the reason for expanding into extra units was to accommodate Ollie’s brothers David and Patrick who also had an interest in dairy farming.
Each of the brothers now run their own leased units with the additional two units managed between them.
On Ollie’s home farm where the tour takes place there are 330 cows milked across 114ha. Milking platform stocking rate is lower than Michael’s at 2.9 cows/ha.
Ollie had started with the same land area as Michael but the way things fell, extra land came available on his platform to lease over the years which has allowed him to grow cow numbers.
Ollie is also milking crossbred cows with the EBI of the herd exactly the same at €160.
The lower stocking rate allows Ollie to feed closer to 700kg’s of meal/cow across the year with some zero-grazing also being done.
In terms of performance, milk solids produced on Ollie’s farm is also excellent but lower than Michael’s at 500kg’s of milk solids/cow.
Fertility performance and tonnage of grass grown are very similar to that of Michael’s.
Ollie’s role involves a lot of people management with one full-time employee at home and two more managers running each of the outside units as well as the part-time and relief staff involved. Attendees on the day will get the opportunity to hear how this collaboration works in practice.
Both farms are similar in terms of running highly-profitable, grass-based systems with excellent work-life balances but the nuances to each business should offer all visitors something of interest.
The event takes place on Tuesday, 21 July and parking will be signposted on approach to the farm.
Registration starts at 9am on Michael’s farm and the day will finish by 4pm.
The event is sponsored by AIB and tickets can be purchased online at irishgrassland.ie. The event is pre-registration only with no tickets available for purchase on the day.
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