The Brennan family run a dairy farm in Clarabricken, Clara, Co Kilkenny. Up to 2006, they were traditional mixed farmers with a variety of enterprises including dairying, sheep, sucklers and tillage on a 185ac owned block.

After taking an in-depth look at their business, they decided to specialise in dairying. By leasing another block of land, they now milk 360 cows on a 400ac milking platform.

Padraig Brennan manages the farm with the help of two full-time employees. With the increase in cow numbers, new roadways had to be installed and older roads upgraded.

Padraig was interested in installing artificial grass on his roadways after visiting farms in the UK where this approach had been taken. He was hoping to improve cow comfort and reduce lameness.

Padraig says cows prefer to walk on the astro track compared to the stone roadways since he installed some in September 2018.

However, from his original enquiries, they didn’t seem to be available in Ireland. Last year he heard about a company specialising in them so he said he would give it a try.

AstroTracksIreland supplied Padraig with an artic load of tracking. According to Michael McCreath from AstrotracksIreland, an artic load carries approximately 400m of tracking at 2m width. When sourced in Ireland an artic load costs around €900 but domestic availability can be variable. If it is imported from the UK it costs €1,200.

Installation

Padraig said the tracking came in approximately 15m long rolls, with some a little longer and some a little shorter.

“They are quite heavy at 1t each so you would need to take care when transporting them,” Padraig said. “I used the JCB bucket to lay them. They are 2m wide so they fitted inside the bucket. I lay the tracking down where I wanted it and rolled it out using the bucket of the JCB and adjusted it where needed.”

Fifteen-metre long rolls of astro track to be laid.

He found this system to work fine but said the tracking is trickier to manage on corners. “Once it goes down, it is hard to move again,” he said.

AstroTracksIreland recommends some site preparation before laying the tracks such as filling potholes and rolling any loose stones.

Performance

Padraig only did a few sections of roads as a trial so it still early days to give an overall verdict.

He mostly placed the tracking at the side of the roadways so there was still room for machinery to pass. His roads are 5m wide and the tracking is 2m, leaving 3m for machinery. According to Padraig, cows will choose to walk on the astrotracking over the stone roadway at every opportunity.

From his experience so far, the tracking should not be driven on with heavy machinery, especially on hills.

“We drove tractors on some of the astro tracking on a hilly section of road and it did ravel in places,” he said.

We have to cross one road regularly so we decided to put tracking at the two road entrances

Padraig said the roads where the tracking is laid mainly see cow traffic and he can manage the farm in such a way to avoid regular machinery use on these areas.

He found the astro surface particularly useful for crossing a public road.

“We have to cross one road regularly so we decided to put tracking at the two road entrances. Cows now walk very fast across the road as they know they are heading for the soft surface at the other side,” Padraig said.

He believes that it is making a difference when it comes to lameness prevention but again it is too early to tell for certain. “I am happy enough so far with the tracks and hope to do all the roads over time,” said Padraig.