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It might be a long way from everywhere else but the Crotty family farm supplying Kerry Group is in it for the long haul.
The milk travels by road from the Loophead Peninsula to Killimor and then by ferry to Tarbert before landing into Charleville. As far as the farm is concerned, the land is south-facing and right out on the coast but it has all been reseeded and set up with good farm roadways, so that Patrick Crotty can produce 400,000 litres of milk in a spring-calving operation with no milk delivered in December or January. Pat took over the family farm in 1995 and hasn’t looked back since.
The 10-unit parlour and main cubicle shed have all been extended or built from scratch. Three years ago, the parlour was a six-unit herringbone with 3ft centres but that was converted to a 10-unit with 2ft 6in centres.
The investment in buildings means that the 70 milking cows can be managed daily, mostly by Pat and Shauna.
Increasing cow numbers further means more feed purchase is necessary and when the sea is on one side of the farm and commercial dairy and suckler farms are all around, you have to be careful with numbers.
Pat uses all AI with 75% of the cows in calf to dairy and 25% to beef AI. The plan is for a 10-week calving period from 1 February to mid-April.
When asked his secret for producing top-quality milk, Pat said: “It’s like a big jigsaw, all the small things come together –the paddle testing if a suspect is high in SCC, the milk recording, culling high SCC cows and a proper routine for plant washing.”
Every second day, the Crotty milking machine gets a hot wash with a sodium hydroxide detergent and 100ml of peracetic acid in the final rinse. Descaling of the plant is carried out weekly.
Patrick's cubicle shed.
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