For this week’s Dairy Focus, Agriland made the trip to Tullamore, Co. Offaly to the farm of Nicholas Molloy.
Unlike most dairy farms in the country, cows on this farm are housed all year-round.
There is a significant focus on this farm on feed quality, with a multi-cut silage system used as part of a total mixed ration (TMR).
The farm has two Lely A5 robots which were installed four years ago, along with a Lely Vector which has been in place on the farm since August 2023.
Dairy
A tillage and dairy farm, the tillage operation remains the main enterprise, with a total of around 1,000ac farmed on mainly rented land.
Four years ago, Molloy installed two Lely A5 robots and purchased around 120 cows.
A year-round calving system is now operated with around 110 to 120 continuously milking on the robots.
An indoor system was opted for on this farm due to rented land and fragmentation of the farm, with cows fed a TMR year round.
Speaking on the conversion to milk, Nicholas said: “We knew nothing about milk, it was totally new to us – so we learned a lot in the first year.
“We opted for the robots due to us being so busy, we have the tillage operation along with silage contracting business – so we are busy nine months of the year.”
Cows are fed on a diet of maize silage, grass silage, soya bean meal and concentrates in the robots.
Grass silage is harvested from the fields which Nicholas says are not suitable for tillage.
Robots
Nicholas says that he does not believe he would of entertained milk without robots, with two Lely A5 robots currently milking the herd.
He also noted that grazing was never being considered for this farm, a small land base around the yard meant he believed it would not be suitable for this kind of system.
An indoor system, with is common place around the world was instead chosen, with Nicholas saying that attention to detail is vital in this type of system.
“I believe that anyone could get those cows to 28L/day, we are fit to get them north of 30L, it starts with pit face management, not forking waste silage into the feeder and with not letting it heat in the feeder.
“There are 100s of things, but attention to detail got us to 30L, now we are up near 33L with Vector.
“Attention to detail has been really important to get that extra production, especially in recent milk prices. You have to be nailing all the small stuff,” he said.
Cow type
The cows on this dairy farm are predominately made up of Holstein and Friesian genetics, but there is a variation in the size of the cow within the herd – Nicholas said this is something that he going to focus on going forward.
He believes that you could put any cow into his system and they will produce good levels of milk.
Replacements are purchased in, all the cows within the herd are breed to beef – with Belgian Blue being used on a lot of the cows recently.
Nicholas said he was using some Fleckvieh straws in case to decide to keep some, but that is not the case anymore.
The tillage operation and contracting business means that Nicholas is busy throughout the year and he feels that he could not give replacement heifers the attention they would deserve.
He also said that calving all year round would also mean that he would not have a nice equal group of heifers.
Commenting, Nicholas said: “I don’t think I get it right, I would get the breeding and calf rearing right, but it would be after that were I would fall down.
“If I don’t think that I can get it right I won’t do it, we don’t have fields fenced for livestock, I don’t have someone to check them and I would be worried about getting them in calf.”
Up until recently, Nicholas had been purchasing later calving cows from spring-calving dairy herds, but he now says that he is going to focus on purchasing high quality Holstein heifers.
“I was kind of afraid at the start of having a whole herd of them, but I am getting more confident that I would be able for that type of cow.
“If they are managed right there is no issues”, he said.
Feed
A multi-cut silage system is used on the farm with first cut harvested on April 20 in 2023, with silage cut ever four to five weeks.
Nicholas noted the important role the a nutritionist plays in this system, with him also noting that it was challenge to find the right person for a housed system in a grass based country.
He now works with Niall Nolan from Alltech on formulating the diet for the cows.
The TMR consists of 50% grass silage and 50% maize as the forage, along with 2kg soya bean meal currently and a 21% dairy ration – with the cows currently averaging 6.3kg.
Cows are fed on a feed to yield with a max of 12kg being fed up to 50L of milk.
Commenting Nicholas said: “We are probably over feeding somewhat, which is why drying off or pulling out cows when they drop to around 25L is important otherwise they put on too much condition.
“Technically some of the cows should not be getting any concentrates, but to keep them interested in the robot you have to give them up to 2kgs – they do lose interest at 1kg.”
Consistency of feed
Nicholas said that within the first year they had realised the importance of consistent feeding when you have cows on a TMR diet.
He noted that when smalls changes were made or different people fed over a period you could see a change in the cows production.
He said: “I started looking at the Lely Vector for more consistent feeding, it made sense for us feeding all year round
“We where trying to feed twice a day and keeping it to the same time, but when we would get busy in the spring and summer that would not always happen.
“The Vector arrived in August and within a few days we saw a 3L increase in milk and we where not doing bad work – we where very particular about the feeding.”
He noted the consistency in the feed has stop cows from being loose and then becoming sick, since the Vector has been installed.
“We are getting an increase in milk production along with healthier cows and no waste.
“Are intakes are also up, and some people would argue that due the cows being offered extra feed, but with the diet feeder no matter how well we did it – we would always be pushing away a tonne of feed each week.
“That tonne of feed is now being eaten and we are not wasting any feed.”
Nicholas says that it is not only the more consistent feeding, but also the pushing in off feed on a continuous basics.
Vector
Nicholas says that not having to push in feed is a big change, and he believes this is a big factor in the increased production from the herd.
“We where trying to push in the feed every few hours, but that didn’t always happen.
“When we where off peak and we did push in the feed every two hours, we could see the lift in intake and production from the cows.”
Nicholas explains that every 40 minutes, the Vector completes its route which includes all the feed faces for milking herd and dry cows.
“On this route, the feed is pushed in and the height of the feed read, once the feed drops below 50mm, the Vector will go and get feed to put at this feed area,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “We are getting a huge kick out of the dry cows, we always have 20 to 25 dry cows in the group and we where trying to make enough for two to three days, which is not ideal and it was going off.
“So, they were hungry while they where waiting for you to mix a load for them, but now they have fresh feed every nine hours.”
Nicholas says that he is also seeing increased intakes after calving and reduced metabolic issue with the cows.
The dry cow diet consists of silage, straw, a small amount of soya and dry cow minerals.
Herd targets
Nicholas said that in 2023, he set a target of achieving 1.3 million/L from the herd, with this target fallen short by 10,000L.
“To try and achieve that target, we had the whole system really pushed, we had around 60 cows on each of the robots.
“Now, I believe we can achieve that same level of production with 55 cows on each of the robots.
“With 10 less cows in the shed we are getting the same milk, with a cleaner shed, less issues and happier cows.”
Nicholas also noted that by dropping the 10 cows out the average milkings/cow has increased from 2.8 to 3.1, with some cows being milked four times/day.
Continuing, he said: “We try not have too many cows in the shed that are under 20L and are target is to average 35L/day – which we should be able to do.
“To achieve this, some cows will have to be pulled out of the system when production starts dropping.
“With the robots, you can only milk so many cows and that cow in taking up space in the shed – when there is a 40/45L cow there ready to take her place.”
Daily routine
The morning jobs on the farm can be completed within an hour and half, and during the busy months, three people can have the jobs done in 20 minutes.
Before the Vector was installed, it was taking an additional 30 minutes.
The morning jobs include cleaning of cubicles, wash down of the robots and changing of filters, checking cows for health issues or that are on heat for breeding and feed calves.
The Vectors kitchen also needs to be filled with feed each, Nicholas says that they currently have to fill the kitchen daily, but that he looking to purchase a block cutter which could mean that it would only need to be filled every two to three days.
In the evenings the cubicles and wash down of the robots is completed again.
Commenting on the future of the farm and potential future expansion, Nicholas said: “There is currently no plan to increase cow numbers, but the temptation is there.
“I am a firm believe that if I can keep the two robots maxed out, it is better than having three robots running at 60%.
“I not ruling it out, the Vector was designed to feed another 60 milkers – but there has been a lot of investment in the last four to five years so I don’t think it will be happening anytime soon.”
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