Last Friday, Glanbia representatives confirmed to the board of the Greenfield farm in Kilkenny that it will not receive the full top-up on milk price that Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) shareholders have been receiving for the last three months in milk cheques.

The three shareholders in the farm who put up the loan security and borrowed the €850,000 to allow the project to go ahead are the Phelan family (landowners), the Irish Farmers Journal and Glanbia. The Phelan family are shareholders in GII and have a third ownership of the company running the Greenfield farm, so the farm will qualify for one third of the bonus paid out as per milk delivered.

The Greenfield farm in Kilkenny has no shares in the milk processor or cannot share-up, as per normal shareholder rules, as it is individuals and not entities that are allowed to share-up.

The farm was set up in late 2009 following an allocation of quota from the Department of Agriculture to allow the unique project go ahead in advance of quota abolition.

The net result of this decision, based on budgets, is that the farm will do well to break even this year at projected milk prices when all costs, including labour and loans, are taken into account.

Top protein

Grass quality and quantity on the farm is very good at the moment and milk solids are exceptional compared with previous years. The last milk test shows the herd averaging 19 litres at 4.75% fat and 3.96% protein (1.70kg MS), with an SCC of 152,000 cells/ml.

To date, the herd has consumed on average 125kg of meal per cow with only grazed grass since late April. If grass gets tight in the coming weeks and to extend the rotation, then good-quality round bale silage will be fed.

Herd fertility seems to be okay, but it’s early days for results, as the breeding season continues for another week, bringing the total length of the breeding season to 15 weeks.

At the moment, there is about one cow on average in heat per day, suggesting there are at least 20 cows not in calf. Scanning will be completed in early September to determine the exact number of cows not in-calf and these animals will be removed as early as possible to allow grass to build up.