The late August sun didn’t deter crowds from attending the Grass10 open day on the Galvin farm near Dunmanway, Co Cork, on Thursday.

It was the first in-person dairy open day organised by Teagasc since the coronavirus pandemic began and despite having to register in advance and get your name ticked off the list upon entry, it was very much business as usual.

John and his wife Yvonne are milking 105 cows on a 35ha milking block. Even though it’s surrounded by hills and valleys, the soil type is good, but, then again, the farm is also exceptionally well managed.

Grazing platform on target

An example of this is that 100% of the grazing platform is on or above target for pH, phosphorus (P) and potash (K). The farm grew 15t DM/ha over the last two years and the long-term average is 13t DM/ha.

Total chemical nitrogen (N) applied on the milking platform is 200kg N/ha, which is well below the maximum allowed. John is spreading 25 units N/acre in the last application.

John Galvin's herd is Jersey crossbred.

The high grass growth is achieved with moderate inputs, despite the fact that there is very little clover on the farm. John says the next step for him is to get clover established.

The herd performance is exceptional, selling 518kg MS/cow to Dairygold last year, with an average fat content of 4.81% and protein content of 3.87% putting John in the top 1% of Dairygold farmers for milk price received of 38.7c/l in 2020.

John puts this down to both genetic potential and grassland management. On genetics, he focuses on PTA for fat and protein percent when picking bulls.

His herd average PTA for fat is 0.22%, while it is 0.13% for protein. The overall herd EBI is €171 and it is a Jersey crossbred herd. Six-week calving rate is 93%, which is very high.

The herd sold 520kg MS/cow last year.

On grassland management, he has been completing an autumn budget for the past three years, which he says is “brilliant”.

The budget allows him to have enough grass in spring, which ensures early turnout. Cows are trained to clean out paddocks well in April.

“I aim to be grazing 1,400kg/ha covers during the summer. If they don’t clean out a paddock, it’s my fault because the pre-grazing yield went too strong. When that happens, I don’t ask the cows to correct it.

“This summer was the first time I topped a field in five or six years. I also did some pre-mowing and took out a good few paddocks for silage just to improve quality.”

Current performance is 1.65kg MS/cow on 1.5kg meal, while average farm cover is 976kg/ha and growth rate is 72kg/day.