My name is Matthew Lang and I am a third-year Animal and Crop Production student at UCD.

In January myself and six others travelled to New Zealand to complete a 16-week placement on dairy farms. I have spent the past four months on Glenire Farm, a 1,200-cow dairy farm owned by Ryan and Tina O’Sullivan.

The farm is situated in the heart of the McKenzie mountain range, with views very similar to home and some not so similar. I’m glad to say I have seen three bunches of rushes in the last four months.

Soil and irrigation

We have nearly every soil imaginable on this farm, except for peat, so it all sets its own challenges. Like all large dairy farms over here, the whole dairy block is irrigated by four large pivots, as well as a Roto Rainer and K-lines.

It’s unbelievable what water can do to land when you look into neighbouring farms and see nothing but burnt, brown grass.

Milking

Since I arrived here in January we have been on 16-hour milkings due to a heavy drought in spring. At that point the season was looking to be a disaster, with milk production back 13% on the previous season.

Since then the growing season has been exceptional, with rain coming at the right times and land never getting too dry or wet.

Even still, at this moment we are achieving full paddocks of lush grass which is unheard of at this time of year.

Lucerne, kale and barley

Cows are fed a very mixed ration on the farm at the moment. All the feed is produced on the farm, as well as the grass seed.

We grow kale, fodder beet, Lucerne, maize, wheat, barley, turnips as well as triticale, all of which are quite uncommon to have on such a large dairy farm.

Lucerne is a very interesting crop in that you can get five, six and even seven cuts off it in a growing season, with moderate yields.

We have got two good cuts since I have been here and we baled it into round bales which will be fed at winter time.

Machinery work

We also do nearly all our own machinery work. The only jobs we don’t do are pit silage, spraying and ploughing.

I have spent quite a bit of time doing machinery work from silage to cultivations, digger work to spreading fertiliser with our spreader truck.

Every round of grazing we do the whole farm gets a 40kg/ha covering of urea, which takes some time considering there are +750 acres in the dairy block alone.

Of course, GPS is used in all the tractors and the spreader truck, which means anyone can use these machines to a good degree of accuracy.

Security

Security is one thing I cannot get over in this country, be it around the farm or in the local towns.

In Fairlie, our local village, people leave the keys in the ignition and walk away from the car without batting an eyelid.

On our farm there are two locks, one on the chemical shed and one on the firewood shed, nothing else has a lock - or sometimes even a door.

We left a perfect motorbike along a road about two months ago now and it’s still there, never touched. It’s sad to think Ireland was like this one time.

I have to say I’m looking forward to getting home, but I’ll find it very hard to settle knowing there’s a land overseas with no midges, no crows, no bog, no rushes and, most importantly, the summer rain can be controlled from a switch.

Finally, thanks to the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) and the Irish Farmers Journal for awarding me the bursary to undertake the placement here.

Read more

Student blog: milking, dirt bikes, calving and grass on a Kiwi farm

Student blog: simplicity in New Zealand dairying