Conall Daly’s original plan for his year in Australia was to work in construction, combined with some travel, before coming back home to take over the family farm in Carrickmore, Co Tyrone.

Instead, he is now working on the largest single-site dairy farm in the southern hemisphere, a 6,500-cow unit in Gooloogong, New South Wales.

That came about after Conall contacted a genetics company about the possibility of getting some experience showing pedigree Holstein cattle during his time in Australia.

The 24-year-old is keen to establish a pedigree Holstein herd on his own farm when he goes home. Before moving to Sydney, he worked for a year at Redhouse Holsteins, a dairy farm near Dungannon owned by the Irwin family.

“Bluechip Genetics told me to come to the International Dairy Week (IDW) Australia event in Shepparton, around two hours from Melbourne. I was there for a few weeks working with breeders and clippers from Australia, Canada and the US. When I went back to Sydney I couldn’t settle after being in the countryside and working with cows again,” Conall said.

Jobs

He started looking for jobs on dairy farms in Australia and applied for a milking job at Moxey Farms, the unit he is working on now. “They said there wouldn’t be any milking jobs for a few weeks. But when I sent on my CV they offered me a job on the breeding team straight away. They are very keen to train staff that are interested in dairying and want to learn,” Conall said.

He has been on the farm for seven months and Moxey Farms has sponsored his application for a visa extension to stay in Australia. “The sponsorship would be four years if it came through. But you can’t plan too far ahead. This time last year I didn’t think I would be here. My dad is happy enough for me to stay because the farm at home will always be there,” Conall said.

High input

The farm in Australia is run by the Moxey family and has expanded rapidly in recent years with several investors coming on board in 2015. The dairy unit is not typical of Australia, instead being more similar to high input, indoor systems common in some countries in the Middle East.

“There is a 50-a-side double up herringbone and an 80-point rotary parlour. Both are going 24 hours a day and only stop for washing. The cows are milked three times a day and are grouped in 14 milking pens, according to yield and age.

“The cows are housed all year round in tunnel barns. The sheds are fitted with fans and misters, and cubicles are bedded with sand. They take cow comfort very serious here. When you walk into a shed you wouldn’t think it’s 40 degrees outside,” Conall said.

Feed

Cows are fed a total mixed ration (TMR) of corn silage, cereal silage and Lucerne hay and there are no in-parlour or out-of-parlour feeders. Citrus pulp is included in the diet as a fibre source and flavour buffer so that cows don’t notice if changes are made to the ration.

“They have 15,000 acres and they grow most of their own crops. It’s all under irrigation, either flood or pivot irrigation systems,” said Conall.

Average daily yield is 43 litres at 3.9% butterfat and 3.2% protein and this stays relatively level throughout the year as cows calve all year round.

“Calving all year round is not common is Australia. It is so warm in the summertime that most farms stop serving cows for a few months as they won’t hold due to heat stress. Most Australian herds are 500 to 600 cows and are outside grazing all year,” he said.

Staff

There are over 200 staff on Moxey Farms. Workers are divided into teams that specialise in milking, calf rearing, breeding, crop planting and harvesting, sand bedding recycling, recruitment and administration.

Conall is in the breeding team and his work involves artificial insemination, checking heats, pregnancy diagnosis and carrying out health checks on freshly calved cows, such as monitoring temperatures and ketone levels in blood.

“There are plans to keep expanding cow numbers and they have their own construction team building sheds full-time. Replacement heifers are outside at grass on irrigated ground. They are fed TMR as well, but they are building sheds to start to house them shortly,” he said.

Conall is still involved in showing cows and is going back to the IDW Australia dairy event in January. He bought a dairy heifer at a herd dispersal sale in Queensland a few months ago that went on to win junior champion at the Forbes dairy show in New South Wales.

He has also bought shares in a cow with Bluechip Genetics and plans to show this animal at IDW.

“When I first came to Australia I didn’t think I would be in partnership with some of the country’s best Holstein breeders. If you show an interest out here, you can go a long way,” Conall said.