Christopher Cahill, the Cavan man milking in Co. Westmeath, is the latest farmer to feature on the new season of Agriland's limited podcast, 'The Dairy Trail'.

Cahill has been farming in a share agreement on the farm of Tony McCormack, based just outside Delvin, since January 2022.

In just shy of five years, the farm has gone from strength to strength, between scale, improved genetics, facilities, and even land.

When partnering up with McCormack, Cahill brought a newly purchased herd to the agreement, merging them with the pre-existing herd.

Since then, the two have being using cows as their currency, with investments in infrastructure going towards Cahill's expansion in ownership of the herd.

Cahill noted that it has taken the full five years to get the herd to where he wants.

Back in 2022, the herd was producing just over 370kg of milk solids (MS).

Fast forward to 2025, the 240 head strong herd sold over 460kg/MS/cow, and is on track to achieve it's target of 500kg/MS/cow in 2026.

This improvement took hard work and strategy, with Cahill selling in-calf cows from the original herd early on, and buying in additional heifers to suit his desired genetic makeup instead.

It did mean he was left with a young herd for his first few years, but he had a good platform to breed from and mould his desired herd.

He went all in on sexed semen from the beginning, originally using tail paint and sync programmes, before eventually investing in Censortec heat detection collars powered by Nedap at the end of 2024.

Cahill stated the investment revolutionised his breeding season, with a 61% conception rate at first service this year, a sub 10% empty rate, and a 91% six-week calving rate.

The Dairy Trail

Cahill speaks about the year in grass, noting how he was lucky enough to avoid the point of getting fully burnt during the drought.

He speaks about the importance of getting good quality silage into the yard, especially as getting cows out in the spring can be a challenge considering the farm is host to over 150 swans each winter, which eat the same amount of grass as 15-16 bullocks would.

We also hear about Cahill's dry-off routine, and his 'special talent' in identifying all of his cows, which recently made him a viral sensation.

Cahill speaks about going down with bovine tuberculosis (TB) this year, and the impact it has had on the share farm.

He noted how compensation was relatively fair to buy a replacement animal, but said he was still losing years of genetics and the next generation of replacement heifers.

He noted that the lost cows resulted in a loss of approximately 20,000L a month, which works out at a reduction in income of more than €7,500/month, a significant hit for a share farm where profits are already divided.

If you are interested in hearing more about Cahill's operation, tune into episode two of Agriland's limited podcast series 'The Dairy Trail' here on Agriland  or whatever platform you use to listen to your podcasts.

If you have already listened to the podcast, tune back in on Monday (November 9) at 5:00p.m, as we travel down to Seamus Killoran's farm in Co. Wicklow to see how winter milking is going for him.