I milk: “160 Friesian cows alongside my parents Tom and Mary, brother Padraig and fiancé Kelly Murphy, supplying Centenary. I came back to farm straight after coming home from college in Waterford.”
Changes: “Numbers were around the 96-cow mark then, having been at 70 during quotas, and we kept growing from there. There would have been spuds, tillage and some cattle before we went down the more specialised route when quotas lifted.”
This week: “The cows are still out by day and night, bar one wet night last week. Ground conditions are still good here, we don’t seem to have gotten as much rain as other parts of the country, but we will still be looking to take cows in by night soon. They will just be getting a pick of silage when they’re in and we are looking to make sure we get enough of the farm grazed before closing so that we will have grass in spring.”
Cow type: “The herd is pedigree registered with the genetics being roughly 50% British Friesian and 50% Holstein Friesian. We are looking to go to maybe two-thirds Holstein as there just isn’t the same gene pool there for the British Friesians that there would have been. A 600kg cow isn’t the end of the world here if they are producing.”
Facilities: “When we were going up in numbers, we put in a new 20-unit Pearson parlour, with a drafting area under the same roof. The old parlour was converted to a calving shed. Looking ahead, we plan on putting in a slurry tower to keep on top of slurry storage requirements.”
The Ryans' herd is pedigree registered.
Land and nitrates: “There is 40% of the farm that’s leased. Three years ago, we were lucky that some land came up for lease beside the grazing platform which was a huge help. We did have to go out and lease more land with the nitrates stocking rate drop and we are around the 210kg organic N/ha figure now, so keeping the derogation is important to us.”
Milk quality champions: “On milk quality, we try to be proactive, instead of reactive. A stitch in time saves nine and for us, that means focusing on milk quality from the time cows are dried off.”
I milk: “160 Friesian cows alongside my parents Tom and Mary, brother Padraig and fiancé Kelly Murphy, supplying Centenary. I came back to farm straight after coming home from college in Waterford.”
Changes: “Numbers were around the 96-cow mark then, having been at 70 during quotas, and we kept growing from there. There would have been spuds, tillage and some cattle before we went down the more specialised route when quotas lifted.”
This week: “The cows are still out by day and night, bar one wet night last week. Ground conditions are still good here, we don’t seem to have gotten as much rain as other parts of the country, but we will still be looking to take cows in by night soon. They will just be getting a pick of silage when they’re in and we are looking to make sure we get enough of the farm grazed before closing so that we will have grass in spring.”
Cow type: “The herd is pedigree registered with the genetics being roughly 50% British Friesian and 50% Holstein Friesian. We are looking to go to maybe two-thirds Holstein as there just isn’t the same gene pool there for the British Friesians that there would have been. A 600kg cow isn’t the end of the world here if they are producing.”
Facilities: “When we were going up in numbers, we put in a new 20-unit Pearson parlour, with a drafting area under the same roof. The old parlour was converted to a calving shed. Looking ahead, we plan on putting in a slurry tower to keep on top of slurry storage requirements.”
The Ryans' herd is pedigree registered.
Land and nitrates: “There is 40% of the farm that’s leased. Three years ago, we were lucky that some land came up for lease beside the grazing platform which was a huge help. We did have to go out and lease more land with the nitrates stocking rate drop and we are around the 210kg organic N/ha figure now, so keeping the derogation is important to us.”
Milk quality champions: “On milk quality, we try to be proactive, instead of reactive. A stitch in time saves nine and for us, that means focusing on milk quality from the time cows are dried off.”
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