Michael Guinan farms in partnership with his son Kevin and wife Concepta in Ballingcloghan, Co. Offaly where their Montbeliarde herd is producing the goods.
Their son Damien is also a big part of the farm as he is heavily involved with the nutrition of the herd as he holds the position of the dairy specialist for J. Grennans and sons.
The family have been breeding Montbeliardes since 1990 and they have been a great success for both milk production and beef value as Michael described them as a “serious dual purpose animal”.
In this day and age, where there is much debate around the dairy bull calf, one might consider the benefits of a Montbeliarde cow.
The Montbeliarde open day was held on the Guinan farm during the week where Michael told attendees that the cow produces milk like a Friesian and you still have great calf to sell or bull to fatten.
The Guinans have been milking 117 cows on two Lely A5 robots for the last three years in which they have found it very successful so far.
The Guinans are farming on seven blocks of land but are making their system work through zero-grazing, rearing their own heifers, finishing cattle on the out-blocks and having the silage on the out-blocks.
Between the seven blocks, the Guinans have just under 300ac. The home block is 45ac with a further 20ac under zero grazing meaning the milking platform consists of 65ac of land.
Milking 117 cows off this platform is only achievable through the zero-grazing as Kevin told Agriland that “we can only do it thanks to the nearly 100% utilistaion of grass through zero-grazing”.
Montbeliarde production
The Guinans calve down around 10 cows in the autumn time with the remainder calving down in the spring as the spring calving gets underway on January 15 each year.
The cows are calved down in the spring and are kept indoors while receiving zero-grazed grass until the weather picks up and its suitable to go out grazing, which is usually two to three weeks later.
The herd averaged 7,100L last year at a protein percentage of 3.68% and fat at 3.9% which equates to over 500kg/milk solids (MS).
Cows are getting milked 2.2 times/day on average through the robots and are on an ABC grazing system where zone C is indoors where they receive zero grazed grass.
The milking platform is divided up into three sections (A,B, and C) known as ABC grazing and this system is a typical layout for robotic milking which splits the farm into 3 x 8 hour grazing blocks.
Cows will travel, voluntarily, between the three sections at defined times of the day passing through a series of smart selection gates as they move between the grazing sections.
Almost all of the Montbeliarde bulls and crossbred animals that are produced on the farm from the cows are kept for fattening and are slaughtered at 18 to 22 months-of-age.
These cattle are finished at a grade of R and O with a deadweight average of 370kg. All of the Montebeliarde heifers are kept on the farm for breeding.
Kevin told Agriland that they sold 30 Montbeliarde calves and that “you would never have to advertise, you always have repeat buyers and lads coming looking for the calves and they especially go mad for the red Limousins”.
Breeding
Michael told attendees on the day that “the Monbeliardes fit our system well and we are only producing them better and better”.
The cows are all put to Montbeliarde semen as they look to breed for a cow that will last long in the herd, tough and robust with good milk qualities.
The Guinans run a 12-week breeding season with breeding finishing up on July 15, and have had good submission and conception rates thanks to the use of collars, helping them artificially inseminate (AI) at the right time.
They use a lot of Coopex Montbeliarde semen which gives them the hardiness and longevity that they look for in a cow along with easy calving and milk production traits.
Kevin said that he plans on scaling the Montbeliarde semen back a touch: “Going forward now, I’m going to be more selective as I have the perfect herd size now.”
The Guinans run an Angus bull with heifers and a Limousin bull will be introduced with the cows to mop up any repeats or missed cows.
They generally let the Limousin bull run with the cows for a short while before letting in a short gestation Angus towards the end of the breeding season in order to keep their calving season compact.
Kevin talked about the condition and size of the Montbeliardes as he said: “Size wise, they are a fine big cow, which makes them work well in the box (Lely robot) because they don’t have much space to move around.”
With farm sustainability constantly being brought up when it comes to milking cows and problems around nitrates, environment and emissions consistently shadowing the work of dairy farmers, do Montbeliardes have a role to play in this area?
Montbeliardes are hardy animals that last long in the herd, with many lasting over eight lactations with very little health issues seen throughout their lifetime.
Their milk production has proven to be on a decent level with good value to be achieved at the end of their lactation when culling the animal.
Increasing the longevity of dairy cows can reduce their carbon footprint per unit of product, as they can potentially produce more milk over their life span with a lower replacement rate and fewer emissions from raising heifers.
On top of that, the Montbeliardes do not produce a by-product. They produce a calf that is saleable and has good beef value meaning the Montebeliarde provides a sustainable way of farming.
Kevin rounded up the day as he told Agriland that “ever since the father introduced the Montbeliardes, he has never looked back and I would say the same”.