The Montbeliarde genetics are proving their worth for this dairy farmer in Carrick-on-Suir.

Dairy farmer, Tommy Lanigan is milking 260 cows, with predominantly Montbeliarde genetics paving the way to an efficient farm system.

Of the 260 cows on the farm, there is a number of purebred registered Holstein Frisians, Swedish Reds, and Montbeliarde x Holstein Friesian crossbreds in the herd.

Tommy is milking alongside his wife Ursula, his son Val and his daughter Eloise, and they hosted a number of farmers to their farm during the week as part of the Montbeliarde Cattle Society’s Open Day.

The Montbeliarde Cattle Society’s open day

Tommy started farming in 1990 and began milking cows six years later with 16 cows in a four-unit parlour.

The Lanigans are now milking through a state-of-the-art 22 unit DeLeval milking parlour, equipped with cluster removers, feed to yield, and a monitoring and drafting facility.

The farm consists of 109ha owned and 32ha of an out-block, which is leased and is all in grass.

The free-draining land is prone to drought. Tommy told Agriland that “only two weeks ago, we were burnt up here”, especially in the higher parts of the land where they are 700ft above seas level.

Montbeliardes and breeding

In 2014, Tommy bought in 35 Montbeliarde in-calf heifers from France and most of the purebred stock in the herd are from these cows.

The last of the original bought-in stock only left the herd last year.

The breeding season commences on April 20 and goes on until the end of July. The reason for the earlier breeding start date is that the dry land allow them to get cows out early in the spring time.

Tommy uses conventional dairy semen or the first five to six weeks of the breeding season, where the majority of the cows that come into heat will receive a dairy straw.

However, these cows have to meet the criteria of having good milk recording records, and be good on their feet and legs, and in good condition, otherwise they will receive a beef straw.

Tommy generally tries to put Belgian Blue or Charolais straws on his older, more capacious cows that can take a slightly harder calving, and he also uses Limousin, Aberdeen Angus, and Hereford straws.

The Montbeliardes, Holstein Friesian, and Swedish Red Crossbred cows grazing on the farm

The farmer would typically have 80 heifers calves on the ground each spring, of which he keeps 50-55 and has a buyer each year for around 25-30.

When selecting straws, Tommy wants a bull with good health traits, particularly for feet and legs, with good solids and nothing under 250kg of milk.

He said: “I like to keep a nice bit of milk in them”.

Tommy would often select Holstein Friesian cows to receive a Montebeliarde straw and has started breeding through Swedish Red genetics through his Montbeliarde x Holstein Friesian crosses, achieving that Procross hybrid vigour.

The Montbeliarde straws are mainly Coopex Montbeliarde semen sold through Bó Sires and the Swedish Red straws are also purchased through Bó Sires.

The reason for the purchase of Montbeliarde heifers originally on the farm was to “try something different” but after years of consistent delivery of performance, Tommy said he will continue breeding them and excelling the herds’ genetics through them.

He said: “They are a good, strong and square cow, and they milk every bit as good as any of the Frisians in the herd, and the calf prices you get for them is a big thing.”

Performance

Tommy tries to keep up-to-date with his grass measuring. He said that grass is currently growing in excess of 60kg dry matter (DM)/ha, which has turned his grass situation around.

He said he would always try to drive performance through grass utilisation and would traditionally feed about 750-1,000kg of meal/cow. Last year, due to the poor weather, he fed 1.1t/cow last year.

Herd performance last year – despite difficult weather conditions and poor grass growing – was still strong but a bit behind previous years, as cows produced 487kg of milk solids/cow of about 6,000L/cow, which is about 4.5% fat and 3.6% protein.

However, this year, Tommy believes he is well on route to breaking 500kg/solids/cow mark.

He said: “There is about 1,000L/day more in the tank than there was this time last year.”

The drafting system on the farm, which are hooked up to Datamars’ collars

Cows are currently producing about 24L/day at about 3.5% fat and 4.2% protein off about a range of 3- 6kg of meal/cow/day on the feed to yield system at the moment.

Tommy put this spike in performance down to a couple of factors, stating that last year’s weather was poor on cows while this year, due to the good start in spring followed by good growth throughout, cows have been given a chance to perform.

He also stated that the feed to yield is adding to that performance, as higher yielding cows are now getting an appropriate amount of meal to fill the gap between grazing.

Lower yielding cows are also getting the right amount without hindering on grass intakes, according to Tommy.

He added that the selective breeding on the farm and the heavy focus on quality Montbeliarde semen is beginning to pay off, as the younger stock in the herd are pumping milk, have good fertility, and are robust and hardy.

Montbeliardes and breeding

Performance

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