Owned by the Tyrell family, the herd will see 330 cows milked this spring in its home just outside Kildalkey, Co Meath.

The farm system is split between spring and winter milk, with about two-thirds in favour of spring-calving. Although all cattle in the herd are purebred, the farm is run on a completely commercial basis, using primarily Danish breeding to hit production targets.

Ben Tyrell said: “The Jersey herd was established by my grandfather Garrett in 1955. It has always been run as a commercial herd that just happens to be pedigree. The initial herd was brought in from Jersey island. It would’ve then had a UK influence, but pretty much since AI started, we’ve been all Danish.

“Why the Danish over the others? The balance between production and fertility with Danish cattle is way better than with other strains of Jerseys.”

Production

During the years leading up to the abolition of milk quota, the herd saw a drastic increase in size. The milking herd is now nearly double that of 2014, when 185 were milked. Due to this fact, the herd is particularly young, so Ben foresees production levels of the herd increasing steadily as herd numbers stabilise.

“We’ll probably go 400 or 450 – it’s probably what we can handle here with our current land platform– facilities would need improvement to go to that. But of course that all depends on milk price and a few other things.

“Production-wise, we did 560kg milk solids sold in 2016 on 1.5t of concentrate, but that’s with a young herd. We had 62% of the herd very young, so the aim would be 600kg milk solids shortly.”

Ben says that people often ask him why not try crossbreeding to increase this production, but his answer is simple. “The reason I am pure-breeding is the steady progress and consistency achieved. A strong purebred herd is also a key component to achieve strong crossbreeding in the country.”

The herd is completely AI-based with only the best Danish bulls sourced, and while the empty rate was slightly higher than anticipated, Ben doesn’t see this being a problem as the years go on.

“Fertility is a strength of the purebred Jersey cow. Obviously, due to lack of hybrid vigour it’s not as strong as the crossbreds, but still an important trait we look at when selecting bulls. Conception rates are excellent, fertility is pretty good, but empty rates are still slightly higher than we would like.

“We source most AI from Denmark through Viking Genetics, but are using two of our own bulls in AI also, Woodtown Primus Prime and Woodtown Jason Miller. We have used Hilario and Link in the past, which are worth mentioning, and this year’s are mainly sons of Hulk. I wouldn’t have used much Hulk so I’m able to use his sons, but selection is based on fertility, kilos of milk protein and udders.

“We don’t select using EBI – instead, I find the Nordic total merit (NTM) more reliable for Jersey sires.”

Concerns around the value of the bull calf, along with the impact they have on the beef sector, surrounds all Jersey herds. However, Ben doesn’t see the bull calf as the issue, more the cull cow price received.

“We use sex semen to minimise bull calves and keep the good ones for breeding to sell to pure and crossbreeding herds. The rest are disposed of humanely. We don’t find the bull calves the problem more so the cull cow.

“We would usually keep cull cows in the herd for as long as they’re giving a good amount of milk. One that will be going to the factory this week last calved in April 2015 and is still giving 10l.”

While the herd is still expanding, Ben would like to develop more of a specialised liquid milk production system for the future.

“We are selling some bottled Jersey milk at the moment to the village dairy, which is selling to some major retail outlets. Bottled Jersey milk is small at the minute, but I’m hoping it might come to something. People always talk of unique products and this is certainly unique in Ireland.”

Stocking rate

One of the key reasons Ben finds the herd working so well on farm is due to the increased stocking rate, which can be achieved from the smaller cow. The most recent E-profit monitor done on farm showed a stocking rate of 2.9 livestock units per acre, while this was up at 3.1 last year.

“I think 2016 just gone we did 1,200kg of milk solids on a total farm basis. We would see that 1,800kg-plus is achievable on a whole-farm basis if we were to go 3LU/ha at 600kg milk solids per cow. It’s the stocking rate; we can go 20% higher on stocking rate while producing the same kgs of milk solids per cow as the equivalent Friesian.”

The Tyrell family’s consistent investment over the last 60 years in the best genetics available has attracted the interest of Danish AI company Viking Genetics.

This year, Viking has identified 20 of the herd’s top cows whose progeny will have hair sent across to be genotyped in Denmark with the prospect of selling a bull into this market. Ben identifies the lack of a Jersey genomic database here in Ireland as a serious limiting factor for the breed.

“I’m sort of jealous of the EBI system, because what the EBI has done for the Holstein has been great. Unfortunately, it doesn’t benefit us yet.

“If genomics came in for Jerseys, it would revolutionise the breed. Moorepark has identified that crossbreeding gets the most profitable animal; to do that, it needs to identify the best.”