John and Ann Fitzgerald are farming at Gobbinstown House near New Ross in Co Wexford. In 2014, they were milking 96 cows and total milk sales to Glanbia were 553,272 litres. Cow numbers have increased to 105 milking cows in 2015.

The Fitzgeralds farm over 94ha (232ac) in total, with 46ha available for milking cows around the parlour. They have a mix of pedigree Montbeliarde and Holstein Friesian cows. They are real cow lovers and know the background and pedigree of most of the cows without any paperwork in hand.

All cows are stripped prior to milking and there are jars in the pit. At every milking all milk is held in the jars to check the milk yield for individual yields. Some farmers have jars and milk through them when they don’t want to record yield, but such is the attention to detail on this farm, John and Ann will hold milk in the jars at every milking and record yield for each cow. Cows are stripped, washed if necessary and then dried with a paper towel.

Like other farmers following milk recording, they will get a text showing the top five cows that have a problem. Most times both John and Ann know the culprits before the text comes back and the quarter of that cow is treated and milk will be fed to calves.

The Fitzgeralds have cluster removers and use the teat dip Blu Gard all year round. Sudocrem is another tip the Fitzgeralds have – they find it is good for curing cracked teats. In terms of curing mastitis, the Fitzgeralds will tube the quarter and if there are still clots after three tubes they will usually then also target the cow with an injection of Tylan.

I asked Ann how many clinical mastitis cases they get in the year – “if we get 10 or 11 cases in the year then that’s about it,” she said.

The Fitzgeralds have a slightly spread out calving pattern, but now quotas are removed they are planning to tighten it up. They have no winter contract for milk supply. A new parlour was built in 2011.

Farming System

In 2014 the Fitzgeralds milked 96 cows and in 2015 they are milking 105 cows in spring milk production supplying Glanbia. In total, the Fitzgeralds are farming 94ha (232ac) and milk delivered in 2014 was 5,763 litres per cow at 3.96% fat and 3.39% protein.

Parlour

16 unit herringbone

SCC Results

Average 113,000 for 2014

TBC Results

Average 4,000 for 2014

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