Thriving for a "simple operation" that allows for easier and shorter working hours and to encourage the next generation into farming was a clear motive for dairy farmer, Aidan Kennedy.

The Kennedys are milking 393 crossbred cows on Drangan Farm, Cahir, Co. Tipperary where the family affair produces milk to the highest standard with work-life balance and farm efficiency in the driving seat.

The Kennedys are the 2024 National Winners of the National Dairy Council (NDC) and Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards and are proud suppliers to Dairygold Co-op.

Their farm was in the limelight at a Milk Quality Farm Walk on Thursday, August 28.

Aidan and Derval Kennedy along with their daughter Galina and son Nickolas run a large-scale, high-performing dairy operation with "great help" from three full-time employees.

It was evident on the day that the success of this dairy farm was driven through family and a great workforce, as the day-to-day operations place a strong emphasis on good hygiene practices, excellent grassland management, and superb cow management.

Operating on a 132.5ha milking platform with a total land area of 193ha, the milking platform is stocked at 2.94 livestock unit (LU)/ha and the whole farm stocking rate is 2.34 LU/ha.

Last year, the cows produced 483kg of milk solids/cow with 4.96% fat and 3.79% protein while feeding 984kg of meal/cow and growing 14.7t of grass dry matter (DM)/ha in 2024.

The aim of the Kennedys is to farm in a simplistic manner, as they intend on keeping costs down through maximising grass production and intake while ensuring that facilities allow for easy management and stress-free labour.

Aidan decided to invest heavily in the farm in 2019. He had been gradually building up his stock numbers since the abolishment of quotas in 2015 and put in a 50-bay rotary parlour and upgraded his shed and cubicles.

It was clear that this investment was not just for Aidan's sake, as he stressed at the farm walk that Derval and himself decided to invest heavily to leave the farm in a better place for the next person - whether they were going to sell, pass down to the next generation, or lease out.

Aidan said: "We had to keep it [the farm] running, and had to do it through investing in infrastructure."

He said that milking facilities at the time was not up to spec.

The investment made the business viable and - very importantly - a welcome and enticing place to work.

Aidan recognised that good labour was hard to come by and investing in facilities that make the working day easier, accompanied with a finish-up time of 5pm every evening, would make recruitment and retention of staff a lot easier.

Aidan emphasised that the farm is based on simplicity, with a huge focus on grassland management, a straightforward rotary parlour, enough cubicles and feed space, and has a good contractor to come in and do all the fertilising, slurry, topping, etc.

Aidan highlighted that respect amongst staff and everyone on the farm is crucial, saying that "respect, it isn't very expensive".

He added: "A good team is very important.

"Derval has a great strategy in place for the team."

The farm is obviously very busy during February and March and for the first three weeks of the breeding season, but staff welfare is not forgotten.

According to Aidan: "If you want to have a team, you have to give them fair time-off."

Calving on the farm starts in the first week of February and all cows are dried off in the middle of December.

The breeding season starts at the end of April and continues for 10 weeks, with dairy artificial insemination (AI) used for three weeks on cows best suited for breeding replacements off.

Aidan said he aims to keep about 30% Jersey in the herd.

This is followed with high Dairy Beef Index (DBI) bulls being used on repeats and cows not suitable for dairy AI for the remainder of the breeding season.

The maiden heifers were synchronised and served with sexed semen on May 2 and, 24 hours later, a sweeper home-bred bull went in for 17 days.

If any heifer came bulling between days 18-23, they got served with conventional semen, before the bull returned to mop up.

The herd has an Economic Breeding Index (EBI) of €261, which is in the top 5% of the country, and this herd achieved a 90% six-week calving rate last spring and achieved a 371-day calving interval.

The replacement rate on the farm was 16% this year, with 80 heifers on the farm. This is actually down from 2024, which was a 22% replacement rate.

The farm milk records four times a year with the first of them commencing in April for labour reasons.

The farm achieved an average somatic cell count (SCC) of 115,000 cells/ml in 2024.

The Kennedys also achieved a 56.3c/L milk price, which was 5.2c/L over the Dairygold average and worth an extra €279/cow over the average suppliers price in 2024.

The Kennedys complete an average of 50 grass walks on the farm each year, and have already completed 40 walks so far this year, as all members of staff have an understanding and knowledge for grass measuring, covers, and growth.

This constant measuring allows the Kennedys to maximise production through grass and allows the cows to go into optimal pre-grazing, lush and quality covers, and is crucial for achieving their target of keeping cows out for over 280 days in the year.

Growth rate is currently very low on the farm, with the last walk recording 31kg DM/ha/day of growth and leaving them with a cover of 551kg DM/ha and cover/LU of 162kg DM/LU.

The farmer intended to introduce meal into the diet as soon as the farm walk was over to accompany the 6kg of meal/cow he was already feeding.

He is currently spreading 18 units of N/acre and spreading a half rate on clover paddocks, which 35% of the platforms consist of.

Currently, the cows are producing 19.6L/day with 4.97% fat and 4.08% protein, accumulating over 1.77kg of milk solids/day.