The Egan family from Abbeydorney in north Kerry milks 109 cows on a 30ha milking block. Like all the contestants, standards are high and producing quality milk and good farming is a given.

The partnership consists of Frank and Mary and their son, Eoin, who does some off-farm work during the summer months pushing up silage.

The milking platform is stocked at 3.3 cows/ha with Holstein Friesian cows, with an average EBI of €166. The herd delivered 491kg MS/cow in 2020 from around 750kg of meal per cow.

When choosing bulls, the Egans are looking for high kilos of fat and protein and good fertility, with no bulls chosen with a fertility sub-index of less than €120. The typical empty rates are 8% to 9% annually.

Grass is measured routinely, with 13t DM/ha grown on the farm last year, and the land was grazed an average of 9.5 times.

The farm is very long and narrow with the yard on one end, so cows need to walk long distances and cross one minor road to get to all parts of the farm.

Land quality is very good. Heifers and silage are kept on a 33ha leased block a number of miles away.

Dairy AI is carried out for the first five weeks of breeding, with some of the cows they are not looking for replacements from also getting beef straws.

Beef bulls then mop up any cows bulling.

A small number of sexed semen straws were used this year also.

Selective dry cow therapy

Selective dry cow therapy has been practised on the farm for the past two years and 50% of the herd got sealer only last year.

There were two incidences of mastitis in cows that received sealer only this spring, but overall, Frank and Eoin say they are very happy with it.

Culture and sensitivity testing is used to identify the type of bacteria that are causing mastitis.

A new cubicle shed was built last year, which increased cow accommodation to 130 cubicles, so the farm is well set up. All slurry is spread in-house using a spreader with a trailing shoe.

The existing seven-unit double-up parlour was replaced with a new DeLaval parlour, which has speeded up milking times.

They usually start milking at 6am and return again at 4pm.

The herd is vaccinated for leptospirosis, salmonella and rotavirus scour.