Farming: “I have been dairy farming since 2019 in partnership with my dad, Conal Snr. We would have been suckler farming before making the move into dairy. At the minute, we’re milking roughly 55 purebred Holstein cows with a Lely robot. More than half of the land we are farming is leased, and the home farm has been in our family for years.”
Herd: “We are aiming to calve somewhere between 75 and 80 cows each year to maintain around 55 cows for milking. We operate a 50/50 autumn and spring calving system. We are starting into some autumn calving over the next week, while we are also trying to get breeding wrapped up before the end of August.”
Robot: “When we were looking at getting into dairy, we felt that robotic milking was the best way for us to go. It is a great labour-saving tool, but we also find the technology and information that comes with it very useful. Heat detection and milk quality would be two of the handiest things. You have information there on individual cows that helps you to make decisions. The robot is said to be the most north westerly in Europe.”
Grass: “We run a mainly indoor system, with grass zero-grazed during the summer. We bring fresh grass into the cows once or twice a day depending on dry matter and grass quality. In winter, they move on to a total mixed ration silage-based diet.”
Weather: “We have had a good growing summer, but this has probably been the wettest week we had all summer. We have third-cut silage still to make, but cannot get at it with the wet weather. First cut was also later than usual, towards the end of May, after a wet spring.”
Challenges: “Getting land is probably our biggest challenge. We are around 40ac to 50ac short and leasing ground in this area is difficult. The farm is fragmented too, which is one reason our system works well for us.”
Looking ahead: “Although the milk price is rising, I feel its not where it should be in regards to the rising costs of inputs like fertiliser, feed, fuel and electricity.”
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