Suffice to say one of the most important jobs at this time of the year is to book AI sires in advance of the breeding start date later in April.

This week the list of sires required for the Greenfield farm in Kilkenny was finalised and the order booked (Table 1).

The business objective in Kilkenny is high milk solids, produced mainly from grazed grass with a highly fertile compact calving herd.

It is fair to say the policy has been to criss-cross high-EBI black and white genetics and Jersey sires, depending on availability.

Jersey sires are used on maiden heifers for calving ease reasons.

The result is the herd that is on the farm today, with 80% calved in six weeks, delivering close to 400kg of milk solids per cow, walking long distances, on small volumes of feed, stocked at 2.8 cows/hectare.

It’s not every farmer’s cup of tea, but the model is consistent and is lower in risk than some other systems.