Jamie and Lorraine Kealy are scheduled to host a farm walk tomorrow (Friday, October 19) as part of the Teagasc/Glanbia Monitor Farm Programme.
Farming near Slaneyquarter, Tullow, Co. Carlow, the Kealys will be inviting guests onto their farm for the event at 11:00am.
Not coming from a farming background, Jamie and Lorraine first purchased a 6.37ha block of land in 2003 and started off finishing heifers. In 2010, the Kealys purchased a further 5.67ha – bringing their land to a total of 12.14ha.
Three years later, the Kealys had the opportunity to enter into a long-term lease for land and the decision was taken to enter into dairy farming.
Commenting on the move, Jamie said: “We were tremendously lucky that the milking platform land we leased was good quality and the owner already had quite good infrastructure in place in terms of housing.
“We put some additional cubicles into an existing shed and used an existing structure to install an eight-unit Boumatic milking parlour. We also made some improvements to roadways and water.
We had never milked a cow before or run a dairy farm – so we knew we had a lot to learn. The advantage is that we felt we had to do everything by the textbook, so it was the latest thinking.
“We brought no bad habits with us and there was nothing to interfere with our plans.”
Monitor Farm Programme
The Kealys got involved in the Teagasc/Glanbia Monitor Farm Programme in 2014.
Jamie explained that the programme provided the enterprise with “access to invaluable and progressive advice“.
He added that the programme benefited the farm the most in terms of grassland management, breeding and cash flow/financial planning.
Continuing, Jamie said: “Our target was to have 130 cows by 2019. We started off with 64 in-calf heifers in 2013/2014.
We currently have 98 milking cows with 44 in-calf heifers and a further 40 ‘0-1s’ in the system. The milking parlour had space and was expanded to a 12 unit by spring 2017.
The spring-calving herd currently consists of mainly Holstein Friesians with a small bit of Jersey through it.
The overall farm is now 67ha in size; some 37ha of this is utilised as a milking platform, while the rest is dedicated to replacements and silage.
Returns
Between 2014 and 2017, the Kealys witnessed their milk yield increase from 5,405L/cow to 6,812L/cow – with milk solids per cow increasing from 435kg to 566kg over the same period.
The herd has grown successfully since being established and the profit monitor results show the overall net profit per cow has increased from €450 to €1,425 between 2014 and 2017.
Concluding, Jamie said: “We were very lucky to get into the Monitor Farm Programme. We have been careful about getting advice and then following the advice in a dedicated way.
“We have had to follow the textbook way of doing things as we didn’t know any other way. It has worked, although I still think we have more to learn.”