Eamonn and Darren Healy are milking 275 cows just outside Redcross, Co Wicklow. Having set up a partnership in 2009, they have been part of the joint Teagasc/Glanbia Monitor Farm programme since 2015.

Their 97ha grazing block provides all the grass for the farm aside from 12ha of rented ground for silage. They have a spring-calving system with a stocking rate of 3.0LU/ha. All the land is in one block which means the emphasis for this enterprise is grass utilisation.

“Simplicity is key, the system must be designed for ease of labour”

The cows run a rotation on 32 paddocks aiming to graze 1400 kg DM/ha covers. Replacement heifers contract reared off farm.

Grass

The farm has increased grass growth from 13t/ha to 16t/ha since 2015. Eamonn and Darren put this down to optimising soil fertility, improving grassland management and reseeding. The extra tonnage of grass grown on the farm in the three year period is worth €58,000 to the business.

To tackle low phosphorous levels, the Healys targeted specific fields based on mapping and soil test results. Reseeding played a big part in producing high-quality grass as 80% of the farm has been reseeded in the last seven years. The farm is walked and grass is measured weekly by Darren.

Investment

From 2015 to 2017 there has been a total of €470,000 invested on infrastructure in the farm yard and on field infrastructure. The dairy and parlour took the biggest chunk of this investment as they upgraded from a 12-unit parlour to a 24-unit with ACRs, batch feeders and a dump line. All this investment was planned in lieu of a 30c/l base price for milk.

“Simplicity is key, the system must be designed for ease of labour," Darren explained.

Management and breeding

Adjustments to the management of the cows has been key in increasing the output in the last three years. The herd has gone from producing 380kg milk solids per cow up to 480kg in 2017.

Reducing the calving interval, having good condition on cows coming into the winter and increasing the percentage of heifers calving down at 24 months led to increased output at higher quality. This created extra generation of cash to make investment easier to manage.

The future breeding plans will see an introduction of 25% Jersey genetics as they aim to increase the herds EBI.

The farm is surpassing many of their targets set out at the beginning of the monitor farm programme in 2015. Eamonn made a point not to advocate blind expansion. Both Darren and Eamonn hope that opening up their farm and showing the financial and physical performance of the business will aid people in making decisions for their own dairy enterprises.

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