Over the course of the Christmas period, Agriland has revisited some of our most popular and interesting ‘Dairy Focus’ articles from 2025, in a ‘Dairy Throwback‘ series.

In the final part of the Dairy Throwback series, Agriland revisited the farm of Tony McCormack and Christopher Cahill in Co. Westmeath.

The two have been operating under a farm partnership since 2022 and splitting the profits 50:50.

Tony owns the land, the facilities, and has made all of the capital investment to date, while Chris provides all of the labour and owns 120 of the cows.

Chris began with 100 crossbred heifers, and is focusing on breeding to get the most efficient cows to deliver high solids of the grass based system.

He is a believer in the Kiwi-style cow, looking for mature 500kg cows to produce 500kg of milk solids. He is currently at approximately 450kg of milk solids/cow.

The herd's calving interval was 368 days, with an 81% six-week calving rate and a 9% empty rate.

Following a 10-week breeding season, the empty rate in the herd coming into this spring is 12%, which Chris is not worried about as he expects his six-week calving rate to be over 90%.

The 66 heifers on the farm are contract reared, which keeps the farm system simple as calves are moved to the contract rearers after about three or four weeks.

Chris believes that the genetics of the herd is only going to improve, as he has not yet been able to cull cows on performance, due to needing to keep up production.

In addition, the herd went down with TB in 2024, losing 22 cows.

Investment

In order to make the farm an attractive and viable business, Tony and Chris made some serious investments some months prior to the partnership commencing in January 2022.

Tony added an additional 85 cubicles, the existing cattle shed was converted to facilitate another 40 cubicles, and a new 20 unit DeLaval parlour was installed with a drafting unit.

The milking platform is usually stocked at 3.4 cows/ha, but the duo have still managed to reseed 84% of the farm in the last four years.

Apart from the initial investment prior to the partnership, new roadways were added as the silage ground was converted to grazing and a new paddock and water system was installed.

Registered farm partnership

Tony has two daughters and is also working outside the farm, and simply could not put all his time into farming.

That is why he originally came to contact the Land Mobility Service.

After much thought, he decided to go for a registered farm partnership arrangement, as he "wanted to stay involved on the farm".

Tony owns the 90.5ha of land and is also leasing an additional 20.5ha of land off his brother.

He availed of grant aid in the construction of new sheds and a parlour.

Tony had met Chris in May of 2021, seven months prior to the start of the partnership.

They both set out what they wanted to achieve and what work needed to be done, making sure everything was clearly defined and that everyone knew their entitlements.

On the farm walk, Chris highlighted how the relationship is more important than the farm.

He said: "If you can't get on with the person, you may as well give up."

Chris also mentioned that, for himself, "it's always about the long-term goal" as even in 2023, in a tight year, he decided to reseed 27% of the farm.

Over the last couple of years, money on the farm has been tight as Chris paid €150,000 for stock in the first year, which was followed by poor weather and poor milk price years, with the young herd only now beginning to drive on with production.

However, Chris was able to get by and keep on top of payments.

He said that Tony's "standing locally was a huge benefit" as, once people knew Chris was working with Tony, there was a bit of leeway for him to pay off bills when the milk cheque came in or later into the year.

Chris hired a full-time assistant manager last year, Dylan Farrell, whom he said was a "great stock man".

Chris also mentioned that he was also open to the idea of eventually opening up the doors to Dylan to buy into the business.

Long-term vision

The main thing about this partnership is that all members have bought into the long-term plans and vision for the farm, and accept that the short-term upheaval would result in long-term gain.

Now that they have the system they want in place with their desired cow type, milking parlour and facilities, both parties can start to reap the benefits.

The ultimate goal for Chris is to be walking away from Tony's farm with a herd of cows fully paid off.

He also said that he would love to run a second unit.