Quality Milk Awards: measured expansion in Limerick

Fiachra and Mary Liston farm at Ballyculleen, Croom, Co Limerick, with their young family Caitlin, Edward, Aidan and Matthew. Fiachra’s parents Aidan and Mary also live on the family farm. The moment you drive into this farm you get the organised, clean and well-run feeling. Fiachra is cool, calm and collected and everything about the farm is set up to show farm visitors around in their shoes.

Technology is in play throughout the farm, with various novel but helpful kit such a metered milk pump from the pit in the parlour to the calf sheds, weigh cells under the legs of the feed bins, automatic calf feeders, all cows genotyped and all water metred and treated to the drinkers around the farm. There is a fascination with measurement, measurement and measurement to reduce waste wherever possible. Fiachra uses Kingswood, Moomonitor, PastureBase and Herdplus to manage the herd and farm information flow.

The farm has grown to milking 332 cows this year, with total area farmed up to 140ha. There are 103ha available to the herd as a number of individual 12ha land parcels fell the Listons’ way over the last 20 years. In 2019 about 800kg of meal was fed per cow on grazed grass and cows delivered an average just shy of 500kg of milk solids per cow.

The parlour is a 26-unit herringbone with cluster removers, however, it is one area that Fiachra would like to improve as he feels cows spend a long time walking in and out, which delays milking.

Improving the genetics of the herd has been a strong focus of Fiachra’s for the last 10 years and herd EBI at €183 is up in the top 1% of herds in the country. Calving takes place for 12 weeks in the spring, calving interval is 365 days with a 90% six-week calving rate.

The river Maigue runs through the farm and there are hedgerows, ditches and trees all around the farm including a ring fort which is fenced off. The Listons are doing their bit for environmental sustainability such as harvesting rainwater, recycling plate cooler water, using night rate electricity, installing LED lights as well as spreading slurry with an umbilical trailing shoe and using GPS technology on the fertiliser spreader.

All in all this Limerick finalist for Kerry Agribusiness is a well run operation moving with the times and the large-scale enterprise is not taking away from efficiency or top-class results.