Patrick O’Neill is milking 118 cows on a 40ha milking platform near Mostrim in Co Longford.
The milking platform is relatively dry and free-draining, with a further 7ha of wet land adjacent to the milking platform that’s just used as summer grazing.
Last year, he got the opportunity to lease some land away from the home farm and this is used to rear 40 replacement heifers and grow silage.
The overall stocking rate is around two livestock units per hectare.
A qualified carpenter by trade, Patrick put away the hammer and saw in 2012 and came home to farm alongside his father, Tom.
At that time, they were milking 50 cows and the breeding season started when the Friesian stock bull was let out. Since then, AI has been used to breed replacements and Patrick is well on the road to herd improvement.
Patrick O'Neill, Mostrim, Co Longford.
Big gains have been made.
Ten years ago, the herd had a negative predicted difference (PD) for fat and protein percent in the EBI and they were consistently getting below the Lakeland average for milk price.
Average annual milk solids per cow even four or five years ago were around 350kg. This has since increased to 458kg MS/cow last year, with 4.02% for fat and 3.41% for protein.
The solids are still relatively low and this is something Patrick is continuing to work on, using both high-EBI Holstein Friesian bulls while dabbling in Jersey too. He’s bringing in extra heifers every year in order to accelerate the change in genetics with 32% of the herd first-calvers this year.
A big crowd turned out recently for the Teagasc Grass10 clover farm walk hosted by Patrick.
He began his clover journey in 2019 and is taking part in a new on-farm clover trial being run by Teagasc. At this stage, 24% of the milking platform has some clover in it, averaging 11% clover content with a range of 6% to 18% clover content.
A big crowd turned up to the Teagasc Grass10 clover farm walk in Longford.
The overall objective for Patrick of getting clover established is to reduce his dependence on chemical nitrogen and improve animal performance from grazing grass and clover swards.
To be fair, the O’Neills aren’t big users of nitrogen anyway, with 160kg N/ha spread across the farm last year. However, the rising cost of fertiliser is a big enough incentive to reduce this.
Local Teagasc adviser Seamus Nolan says that the nitrogen use efficiency for the O’Neill farm is 27% and the target for the farm is to get this to 35%.
He said that the best way to achieve this is to maximise milk and meat sales from the farm, as this exports nitrogen, and to minimise fertiliser and meal purchases, as this imports nitrogen.
“Getting the N use efficiency up involves selling more and buying less,” he says.
Fertiliser
Patrick’s fertiliser strategy for this year involves spreading much less nitrogen on the clover paddocks that have decent clover levels (20% or more).
From now on, these paddocks will only get seven units of nitrogen after each rotation which is a very low rate. They will get 10 units/acre for the last application in mid-September. This is following the Teagasc advice as presented by Joseph Dunphy at the farm walk.
The other paddocks with little or no clover will get 0.8 units of nitrogen per day, equivalent to spreading 17 units of nitrogen after each 21-day round.
So far this year, he has 58 units of nitrogen applied, with 40 units of that applied in the form of chemical fertiliser and the remainder in slurry, applied by Tom at a rate of 2,000 gallons per acre after grazing in spring.
Silage stocks
Ensuring the farm has sufficient silage stocks next winter was discussed in depth.
Between cows and heifers, and based on a worst-case scenario five-month winter, the farm needs to have 276t DM of silage in the yard for next winter.
Based on closing 19.5ha for first- and second-cut and making 200 round bales of silage on the platform, the farm expects to produce 250t DM this summer.
When added to the 30t DM left over and currently in the pit, Patrick should be OK for silage. Considering he was out grazing in February this year, planning for a five-month winter is probably a bit excessive on this farm but it’s better to err on the side of caution.
Owen McPartland, who is working on the Teagasc/Lakeland joint programme, says that if farmers are looking like they could be going into a silage deficit next winter they should consider culling some low-performing cows early.
If you wait until September to cull the cows you’re only going to save half that at 12.5t of silage freshweight
He says that a cow culled now will generate an extra 25t of silage in freshweight terms, between what grass she doesn’t eat all summer and which could be converted to silage and what silage she won’t eat next winter.
“But if you wait until September to cull the cows you’re only going to save half that at 12.5t of silage freshweight. It shows the importance of making early decisions around culling cows,” Owen says.
Clover
Patrick has been measuring grass for the last six years and last year the farm grew 14.4t DM/ha.
Forty per cent of the farm is at optimum levels of pH, P and K. Individually, 66% of the farm is on target for pH, 82% for phosphorus and 64% for potash.
It is estimated that 120t of lime is needed to rectify the soil pH issue.
Patrick’s first real foray into clover was in 2019 when he purchased an “off the shelf” grass and clover seed mixture when reseeding.
Since then, he has become more interested in clover. He joined the Teagasc study in 2020 and has began oversowing clover into existing swards.
Last year, he oversowed 20% of the farm in May using a tine harrow with an air seeder and also through the fertiliser spreader. Patrick says the clover that was applied along with the fertiliser is patchy.
No nitrogen was applied for the first two rounds after oversowing and the fields were grazed at low covers of 800kg to 1,000kg pre-grazing yields.
The purpose of not applying nitrogen is to limit grass growth and give clover a better chance.
Grazing at low covers will help to keep light down to the base of the new clover seedlings as without sunlight they won’t grow.
Donal Patton from Teagasc stresses the importance of ensuring soil fertility is good before trying to get clover established. He says this might take time to fix, particularly where soil pH and other nutrients are low to begin with.
The debate on whether to spread chemical nitrogen on fields with good clover content is ongoing.
The official Teagasc advice to spread seven units/acre after each grazing is being challenged by those who can grow comparable grass yields with no nitrogen from May on. Effectively, let the clover provide all the additional nitrogen required.
Previous research has shown a poor response to chemical nitrogen when applied to grass/clover swards.
We know there is a good response to nitrogen on grass-only swards so where nitrogen is limiting, or very costly as it is now, there is logic in the view that where clover is present in good quantities nitrogen should be spared and used elsewhere.
Obviously, this takes a leap of faith on behalf of the farmer, but if the farm grows more grass overall with the same or less chemical nitrogen used then it will be a more successful strategy than drip feeding N to a crop that doesn’t really need it.
Patrick and Tom O’Neill are milking 118 cows on a 40ha milking platform near Mostrim, in Co Longford.They started sowing clover in 2019 and now have 24% of the farm containing clover with clover contents ranging from 6% to 18%. They sow clover as part of the reseeding mixture but also over-sow clover into existing swards.Over-sown fields are grazed at low covers and are given no nitrogen for a number of rounds after sowing. The plan is to spread just seven units/acre of nitrogen on the high clover fields for the rest of the year.
Patrick O’Neill is milking 118 cows on a 40ha milking platform near Mostrim in Co Longford.
The milking platform is relatively dry and free-draining, with a further 7ha of wet land adjacent to the milking platform that’s just used as summer grazing.
Last year, he got the opportunity to lease some land away from the home farm and this is used to rear 40 replacement heifers and grow silage.
The overall stocking rate is around two livestock units per hectare.
A qualified carpenter by trade, Patrick put away the hammer and saw in 2012 and came home to farm alongside his father, Tom.
At that time, they were milking 50 cows and the breeding season started when the Friesian stock bull was let out. Since then, AI has been used to breed replacements and Patrick is well on the road to herd improvement.
Patrick O'Neill, Mostrim, Co Longford.
Big gains have been made.
Ten years ago, the herd had a negative predicted difference (PD) for fat and protein percent in the EBI and they were consistently getting below the Lakeland average for milk price.
Average annual milk solids per cow even four or five years ago were around 350kg. This has since increased to 458kg MS/cow last year, with 4.02% for fat and 3.41% for protein.
The solids are still relatively low and this is something Patrick is continuing to work on, using both high-EBI Holstein Friesian bulls while dabbling in Jersey too. He’s bringing in extra heifers every year in order to accelerate the change in genetics with 32% of the herd first-calvers this year.
A big crowd turned out recently for the Teagasc Grass10 clover farm walk hosted by Patrick.
He began his clover journey in 2019 and is taking part in a new on-farm clover trial being run by Teagasc. At this stage, 24% of the milking platform has some clover in it, averaging 11% clover content with a range of 6% to 18% clover content.
A big crowd turned up to the Teagasc Grass10 clover farm walk in Longford.
The overall objective for Patrick of getting clover established is to reduce his dependence on chemical nitrogen and improve animal performance from grazing grass and clover swards.
To be fair, the O’Neills aren’t big users of nitrogen anyway, with 160kg N/ha spread across the farm last year. However, the rising cost of fertiliser is a big enough incentive to reduce this.
Local Teagasc adviser Seamus Nolan says that the nitrogen use efficiency for the O’Neill farm is 27% and the target for the farm is to get this to 35%.
He said that the best way to achieve this is to maximise milk and meat sales from the farm, as this exports nitrogen, and to minimise fertiliser and meal purchases, as this imports nitrogen.
“Getting the N use efficiency up involves selling more and buying less,” he says.
Fertiliser
Patrick’s fertiliser strategy for this year involves spreading much less nitrogen on the clover paddocks that have decent clover levels (20% or more).
From now on, these paddocks will only get seven units of nitrogen after each rotation which is a very low rate. They will get 10 units/acre for the last application in mid-September. This is following the Teagasc advice as presented by Joseph Dunphy at the farm walk.
The other paddocks with little or no clover will get 0.8 units of nitrogen per day, equivalent to spreading 17 units of nitrogen after each 21-day round.
So far this year, he has 58 units of nitrogen applied, with 40 units of that applied in the form of chemical fertiliser and the remainder in slurry, applied by Tom at a rate of 2,000 gallons per acre after grazing in spring.
Silage stocks
Ensuring the farm has sufficient silage stocks next winter was discussed in depth.
Between cows and heifers, and based on a worst-case scenario five-month winter, the farm needs to have 276t DM of silage in the yard for next winter.
Based on closing 19.5ha for first- and second-cut and making 200 round bales of silage on the platform, the farm expects to produce 250t DM this summer.
When added to the 30t DM left over and currently in the pit, Patrick should be OK for silage. Considering he was out grazing in February this year, planning for a five-month winter is probably a bit excessive on this farm but it’s better to err on the side of caution.
Owen McPartland, who is working on the Teagasc/Lakeland joint programme, says that if farmers are looking like they could be going into a silage deficit next winter they should consider culling some low-performing cows early.
If you wait until September to cull the cows you’re only going to save half that at 12.5t of silage freshweight
He says that a cow culled now will generate an extra 25t of silage in freshweight terms, between what grass she doesn’t eat all summer and which could be converted to silage and what silage she won’t eat next winter.
“But if you wait until September to cull the cows you’re only going to save half that at 12.5t of silage freshweight. It shows the importance of making early decisions around culling cows,” Owen says.
Clover
Patrick has been measuring grass for the last six years and last year the farm grew 14.4t DM/ha.
Forty per cent of the farm is at optimum levels of pH, P and K. Individually, 66% of the farm is on target for pH, 82% for phosphorus and 64% for potash.
It is estimated that 120t of lime is needed to rectify the soil pH issue.
Patrick’s first real foray into clover was in 2019 when he purchased an “off the shelf” grass and clover seed mixture when reseeding.
Since then, he has become more interested in clover. He joined the Teagasc study in 2020 and has began oversowing clover into existing swards.
Last year, he oversowed 20% of the farm in May using a tine harrow with an air seeder and also through the fertiliser spreader. Patrick says the clover that was applied along with the fertiliser is patchy.
No nitrogen was applied for the first two rounds after oversowing and the fields were grazed at low covers of 800kg to 1,000kg pre-grazing yields.
The purpose of not applying nitrogen is to limit grass growth and give clover a better chance.
Grazing at low covers will help to keep light down to the base of the new clover seedlings as without sunlight they won’t grow.
Donal Patton from Teagasc stresses the importance of ensuring soil fertility is good before trying to get clover established. He says this might take time to fix, particularly where soil pH and other nutrients are low to begin with.
The debate on whether to spread chemical nitrogen on fields with good clover content is ongoing.
The official Teagasc advice to spread seven units/acre after each grazing is being challenged by those who can grow comparable grass yields with no nitrogen from May on. Effectively, let the clover provide all the additional nitrogen required.
Previous research has shown a poor response to chemical nitrogen when applied to grass/clover swards.
We know there is a good response to nitrogen on grass-only swards so where nitrogen is limiting, or very costly as it is now, there is logic in the view that where clover is present in good quantities nitrogen should be spared and used elsewhere.
Obviously, this takes a leap of faith on behalf of the farmer, but if the farm grows more grass overall with the same or less chemical nitrogen used then it will be a more successful strategy than drip feeding N to a crop that doesn’t really need it.
Patrick and Tom O’Neill are milking 118 cows on a 40ha milking platform near Mostrim, in Co Longford.They started sowing clover in 2019 and now have 24% of the farm containing clover with clover contents ranging from 6% to 18%. They sow clover as part of the reseeding mixture but also over-sow clover into existing swards.Over-sown fields are grazed at low covers and are given no nitrogen for a number of rounds after sowing. The plan is to spread just seven units/acre of nitrogen on the high clover fields for the rest of the year. 
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: