James and Áine O’Keeffe are farming near Newmarket in north Cork. Owners of the Clover Herd, they are passionate breeders of Holstein Friesian cows and pride themselves on breeding strong cows with good stature, good yields and high constituents.
Last year the herd delivered 465kg MS/cow at 4.22% fat and 3.69% protein.
The long-term goal is to deliver 600kg MS/cow when the herd matures in a few years’ time.
James’s ideal cow is 50% Holstein and 50% Friesian.
Land in this part of Cork tends to be heavy by nature and James says turning cows out early and grazing late just isn’t a runner on his farm.
There are 148 acres in the farm in total and all of this is accessible by the 96 milking cows but the replacement heifers tend to graze the further away parts of the farm.
Additional land has been leased in recent years and James and Áine are planning to increase to 120 cows next season. Some zero grazing is carried out when the land is too wet for cows to walk on. They typically get about 200 days at grass and consume about 1.1t of meal per cow.
The EBI of the herd is €190 and Áine looks after bull selection, aiming to pick bulls with good type and good percentages for fat and protein.
Sustainability is a big priority for the O’Keeffes. Over the last few years, they have planted a riparian zone along 1.7km of river frontage and have also planted almost 200 trees as part of the Kerry Evolve programme.
Today, the farm has over 14% of space dedicated to nature.
Sexed semen is also being used to breed heifers from the best cows in the herd.
James and Áine are still in development mode with a new cubicle shed planned in the next year or so.
Milking parlour
The 10-unit milking parlour was constructed in 2006 and is spotlessly clean. Grazing infrastructure is excellent with good roadways and plenty of access to paddocks for grazing in wet weather. They reseed about 15 acres of grassland every year with perennial ryegrass and white clover.
The O'Keeffes are part of the Duhallow Blue Dot European Innovation Project.
Milk quality is excellent with an average SCC of 108,000 and an average TBC of just 6,000. A small flock of pedigree Romney ewes owned by their son, James, is a nice side enterprise to the dairy herd.
James and Áine O'Keeffe are farming near Newmarket in Co Cork. They are milking 96 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows on a 148ac farm. All members of the family are interested in breeding and genetics.
James and Áine O’Keeffe are farming near Newmarket in north Cork. Owners of the Clover Herd, they are passionate breeders of Holstein Friesian cows and pride themselves on breeding strong cows with good stature, good yields and high constituents.
Last year the herd delivered 465kg MS/cow at 4.22% fat and 3.69% protein.
The long-term goal is to deliver 600kg MS/cow when the herd matures in a few years’ time.
James’s ideal cow is 50% Holstein and 50% Friesian.
Land in this part of Cork tends to be heavy by nature and James says turning cows out early and grazing late just isn’t a runner on his farm.
There are 148 acres in the farm in total and all of this is accessible by the 96 milking cows but the replacement heifers tend to graze the further away parts of the farm.
Additional land has been leased in recent years and James and Áine are planning to increase to 120 cows next season. Some zero grazing is carried out when the land is too wet for cows to walk on. They typically get about 200 days at grass and consume about 1.1t of meal per cow.
The EBI of the herd is €190 and Áine looks after bull selection, aiming to pick bulls with good type and good percentages for fat and protein.
Sustainability is a big priority for the O’Keeffes. Over the last few years, they have planted a riparian zone along 1.7km of river frontage and have also planted almost 200 trees as part of the Kerry Evolve programme.
Today, the farm has over 14% of space dedicated to nature.
Sexed semen is also being used to breed heifers from the best cows in the herd.
James and Áine are still in development mode with a new cubicle shed planned in the next year or so.
Milking parlour
The 10-unit milking parlour was constructed in 2006 and is spotlessly clean. Grazing infrastructure is excellent with good roadways and plenty of access to paddocks for grazing in wet weather. They reseed about 15 acres of grassland every year with perennial ryegrass and white clover.
The O'Keeffes are part of the Duhallow Blue Dot European Innovation Project.
Milk quality is excellent with an average SCC of 108,000 and an average TBC of just 6,000. A small flock of pedigree Romney ewes owned by their son, James, is a nice side enterprise to the dairy herd.
James and Áine O'Keeffe are farming near Newmarket in Co Cork. They are milking 96 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows on a 148ac farm. All members of the family are interested in breeding and genetics.
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