The farm:”I’m farming with my daughter Kayleigh, milking 170 cows on 100ha. She was nursing for the last seven years and is with me now full-time since February. We own 60ha of land and rent the other 40ha.”

Investment:”We’ve invested heavily in the farm since 2019 – that year we put in an underpass. In 2020 we put in a 20-unit parlour and in 2022 we expanded the cubicle shed, increased slurry storage and built a new calf shed.”

Cows:”I’m happy with the cows at the minute; butterfat is 5.66%, protein is 4.1%, their cell count is 113,000 and they’re doing 12.3 litres. They’re getting 3kg nuts/day and they’re in by night.”

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Drying off:”I started drying off the first calvers last Saturday and we’ll be fully dried off by 15 December.”

Calving:”We calve early because we can usually get cows out early – we’ve a dry farm here. We’ll start calving usually on 26 January and we’ll have 80% calved in six weeks.”

Breeding:”I use all sexed dairy semen on my highest EBI cows, we go up €10 every year in order to keep improving. Anything below €210 this year got beef. I use all Angus and Hereford beef and also have an Angus bull to mop up the heifers. I have collars and I’d be lost without them, not just for breeding but particularly from an animal health point of view.”

Derogation:”We’re farming in derogation since 2017. If it goes from 220kg N/ha to 170kg N/ha we’ll have to cull 40 cows. Financially, it’ll be a hit of €60,000. Buildings cost money and we have debt that has to be serviced. The commissioner was here last week and I feel that she listened to our story but we need clarity.”

Replacements:”At the minute we have 45 in-calf heifers. We normally cull the lowest 10% of the herd every year and this is based mainly on health, cell count and feet.”

Carbon foot print: “We’ve cut nitrogen on the farm by 25% since 2022. This is mainly due to increased clover and less chemical fertilser usage. Our carbon footprint is down to 0.8.”