Mark Gray is milking 108 cows outside Prosperous in Co. Kildare alongside his father Brian and his mother Hazel.

The Watchorn farm has been running since the 1930s and Mark always knew farming was where his roots were at, but with milk quota restrictions in place, he decided to pursue a career in construction.

In 2022, Mark finally got the opportunity to return home to the farm, but with a young family and plenty of investment needed in the farm, he decided to put a new spin on the place.

He put in planning permission for a new cubicle shed and an upgraded milking parlour, as well as getting the ball rolling on his new business, Graze Dairy.

Graze Dairy

Considering Brian and Hazel had always been into high quality milk, Mark saw the idea of milk vending machines as a 'no-brainer', allowing him to create an additional revenue stream to support his family, as well as re-investing back into the farm.

Graze Dairy started out as a milk vending machine in a container, and has now snowballed into a thriving farm shop filled with local produce, including the farm's own gelato and eggs, as well as coffee.

With close to 100,000L sold direct from the farm to local consumers at €1.60/L, Mark said the benefits of the business are really proving themselves this year when compared to milk prices offered by processors.

He joked: "It has being a bad year for grass, but a super year for selling ice-cream."

There is a substantial workload for the business, between milking, pasteurising, delivering the milk to various vending machines, staffing the farm shop, and all the paperwork, but Mark said he is lucky enough to have good staff on hand.

To keep quality milk in the shop, the Grays are operating a split calving system with a handful of cows calving down in the autumn.

Mark said you have to keep freshly calved cows in the system to maintain quality, although he is also trying to maintain a good work-life balance.

When it comes to feeding the cows, the Grays need high quality grass throughout the year and high quality silage in the winter.

If the cows are eating poor quality feed, it will affect the taste of the milk.

Holstein Friesian

The Watchorn farm recently hosted the first of the Irish Holstein Friesian Association's (IHFA) farm focus days.

Six dairy farmers, including Mark Gray, spoke on the day, showcasing how pedigree breeding suits each of their individual systems.

Mark said: "My dad, on the breeding side of it, he's always had a strong feeling on what cow he wants.

The Grays truly transitioned into pedigree breeding in the 1990s, with every cow now carrying the Watchorn prefix.

Mark noted how the herd has only got stronger in the last 10-15 years since, through continued strategic breeding strategies, with the herd standing at 90-head strong by 2022.

In 2025, the Grays were delivering an average of 6,841kg of milk at 4.65% fat and 3.8% protein.

That equated to 578kgs of milk solids per cow over the 305-day milk recording period.

The Grays have maintained an average calving interval of 381 days, with the herd averaging €71 in terms of their fertility sub index.

Mark feels the new 16-unit parlour has benefitted the herd significantly, especially as they have come up from a six-unit.

The installation of heat detection boluses has also allowed the Grays to push on with breeding, as they artificially inseminate (AI) nearly every cow themselves before a bull joins the herd for three weeks, bringing the season to 12 weeks in total.

Overall, the herd's average Economic Breeding Index (EBI) stands at €152, with a milk sub-index of €24.

The Watchorn cows have a lifetime value of €3.39/cow/day.

The Grays reseeded 10ac in the spring of this year to ensure they are keeping quality feed in front of the cows.

They also have another 16ac ready to be reseeded here in the autumn, and plan on doing a further 10ac next spring.

Mark said the reseeded ground got them out of jail in terms of keeping cows out this summer.

He added that he had started out a small job on some marginal ground this year, and ended up installing 2km-worth of drains, which will he is also hoping will benefit his grazing season.