The Irish Grassland Association (IGA) dairy event go underway on Monday (July 17) on the farm of Mark Cassidy near Kells, Co. Meath.
The walk showcased how Mark has development a highly efficient dairy operation on his 370-cow farm.
There are two full-time staff members at the farm, along with a student part-time on weekends/during the summer and two extra labour units during the spring-calving period.
It is evident that the success of this farm is due to the simple things being done well and making use of technology.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are used for every task on the farm.
System
Mark returned home to farm full-time in 1996, at which stage there were 46 cows milking on the farm.
After being struck down with bovine tuberculosis (TB), leaving the farm with just 23 cows, the herd started growing.
In 2013 there were 120 cows on the farm, with around 290 cows on the farm when quotas were removed and cows numbers at 360 by 2019.
The farm has grown considerably in recent years, with cow type and grass playing a key role to this expansion.
There are now around 370 cows on the farm. The spring-calving crossbred herd produced 509kg of milk solids/cow in 2022. So far this year, milk solids are down 10% compared to last year, according to Mark.
Cows were fed around 900kg of concentrates last year, with Mark aiming to feed around 740kg this year.
The farm is 153ha, with a milking platform of 115ha, and is stocked at 222kg of organic nitrogen (N)/ha.
The economic breeding index (EBI) of the herd is €207 and the herd has a six-week calving rate of 83%.
There are 394 cubicles on the farm, 94 are under a roof with the remaining 300 being topless.
A 28-unit milking parlour is on the farm, which one person is able to milk the herd in.
Efficiency
Being labour efficient is key driver on this farm, with almost all the machinery work being completed by contractors.
On the farm there is one tractor and a leased telehandler, with all the slurry, chemical fertiliser and winter feeding done by contractor.
For the tasks that are completed by staff or Mark, SOPs are used to ensure they are completed safely and correctly.
This started with Mark adopting a policy of ‘everything has a place’ and that it should be put back when finished using with it.
From there, the SOPs have now developed into every job on the farm, and are sent to staff in a PDF.
Mark has two full-time staff on the farm: David and Sarah, who have both been with him for the past two years.
A staff meeting takes place every Tuesday on the farm where priority items for the week ahead and items of note are discussed.
Sarah and David have defined roles on the farm with each undertaking one milking/day.
The SOPs are continuedly being updated on the farm, with jobs being added and practices changing.
The procedure book contains 170 pages, but Sarah and David both say that is very useful for them and other part-time staff that work on the farm.
Clover
Mark has placed a focus on incorporating technology to streamline the system on his farm.
Anything that will enable Mark or the team working on the farm to carry out their tasks remotely or with the use of automation is an area of interest he has looked at.
Mark sees the advances in technology as a way to continue to improve his farm and make it a nicer, easier, and smarter place to work.
Collars were put on the cows seven days before the start of breeding and by day three of breeding, Mark stopped using tail paint and went solely on the collars.
The reason for investing in collars was Mark wanted to use sexed semen, with breeding this year using 100% sexed for dairy semen.
Based on the collars, cows were served to sexed semen if the collars said the timing was right, otherwise they got a beef straw.
Clover is also being used on the farm, with around 30% of the grazing platform having clover incorporated.
Marks said that from his experience, autumn sowing for clover has worked well for him.
Some of the silage ground has been changed to red clover silage. The red clover was sown on the farm in April 2022.
Bales were harvest from the red clover fields in June, and the crop has been grown using 0-7-30 and hasn’t gotten any slurry yet.
Although red clover silage generally doesn’t result in high-quality feed being made, Mark has found that by cutting it when it has a light cover, some good-quality milking-cow feed can be made.
The first cut is used for milking-cow feed and then the second cut will be used as dry-cow feed.
The red clover silage crop was harvested for zero-grazed grass towards the back end of the year.
Mark said that this is important as carrying a low cover over the winter months ensures that the clover plants remain in the sward.
IGA
The key messages from the IGA farm walk was very much that doing the simple things well has worked for Mark – a focus has been placed on getting the grass right and having an efficient cow.
Mark is happy with his cow type and said he will continue to focus on improving all traits within the herd.
Technology has a massive role to play on the farm, and Mark has also adopted clover and red clover on the farm.
He has also placed a emphasis on making his farm an easy place for staff to work by using SOPs on how to complete tasks.