The partnership between Tony McCormack and Christopher Cahill began in January 2022 and, after a few tough years, maturing cows and weather are aiding in production and cash flow on their Co. Westmeath farm.

The farmers opened up the farm gates to the public on Friday, September 12 for a Teagasc and Lakeland Dairies generational renewal farm walk event.

Under the partnership, Tony owns all the land, the facilities, and has made all of the capital investment to date, while Chris provides all of the labour, owns 120 cows, and the profit is shared 50:50.

Chris told Agriland that he has 120 cows fully owned through herd expansion and that “I’m buying my way out of the herd through offsetting capital investment.”

“Cows are our currency”, added Chris as in short, Tony is basically buying Chris out of the investments they have made as a partnership using the cows.

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

Up until this point, there was 120 cubicles, a beef unit and an open slurry tank. An additional 85 cubicles were put in, the existing cattle shed was converted to facilitate another 40 cubicles, and a new 20 unit DeLaval parlour was installed with a drafting unit.

In the last four years, 84% of the farm has been reseeded, as Chris places a strong focus on grass utilisation and cost management to drive performance in the herd, which is also reflected in his own business, a grass measuring and mapping service in Cavan Grassland Consultancy.

To drive this system focused on grass utilisation and cost management, Chris felt that cow type was a critical element, as the original herd of 110 British Friesian cows quickly transitioned to a crossbred herd of cows targeting a kg of milk solids per kg of liveweight.

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.

Farm production

As mentioned, Chris switched to a cow that he felt would be more efficient for his grass-based system, a cow that could convert grass to high levels of fat and protein.

In the first year, Chris bought a total of 100 crossbred heifers from four different herds, and bought more heifers in the third year to accelerate the genetics further in the herd.

He told attendees of the farm walk that after spending time milking cows in New Zealand, he was convinced that the Kiwi-style cow was going to deliver, maturing at 500kg and producing 500kg of milk solids.

The projected output for this year is 450kg of milk solids/cow, which is an upward trajectory over the last three years and is good performance for a young herd, as 70% of the herd were first or second calvers in 2024.

Dairy farmer, Chris Cahill talking about the farm’s performance

Cows are currently producing 15.8L of milk with 5.57% fat and 4.16% protein off 3kg of meal, 2kg of silage, 3kg of zero-grazed grass and grazed grass.

Chris is currently holding the grazing rotation to a 35-day round to try and build up covers from the 780kg of dry matter (DM)/ha it is currently sitting at, with growth at 55kg DM/ha.

The milking platform is usually stocked at 3.4 cows/ha and is currently stocked at 3.8 cows/ha with paddocks taken out for reseeding.

The 240 cows were fed 800kg of meal/cow, which led to a 43% increase in milk volume compared to 2023 with a 27% increase in cow numbers.

This was in spite of 2024 being a very tough year with poor weather and tough grass growing conditions in an already heavy peat soil farm, with 8-9ac of the farm inaccessible for months.

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

This year, after a 10-week breeding season, the empty rate in the herd is 12%, which Chris is not worried about as he expects his six-week calving rate to be over 90% and cull cow prices at the minute are very positive.

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.

The handling facilities on the farm linked to the new cubicle shed

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 as he needed to keep up production. In addition, the herd went down with TB last year, losing 22 cows.

Through more intensive breeding selection and culling, Chris is now in a position to breed only off the best performers, which will eventually improve the herds’ genetic gain.

The herd produced 409kg of MS/cow last year with 4.83% fat and 3.75% protein and 120,000 cells/ml, earning the farmers an average milk price of 56.2c/L which is 4.8c/L over the Lakeland Dairies average.

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, Tony 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.

Chris highlighted on the walk that the relationship is more important than the farm, and 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.

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.

It was highlighted on the day that regular open and honest discussions have been the key to the partnership’s success so far.

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.

Chris gave younger people in the crowd some advice, and said “you have to be planning years ahead and start saving money” whereas Tony advised the older generation to be open to these sort of arrangements as it offers a win-win for both parties.

Farm production

Registered farm partnership

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