Trip to West Meath

On the 5th November 1997 members of the North Down Grassland Management Team journeyed to County West Meath to see the practice of extended grazing on two progressive dairy farms.

Michael Murphy & Kevin Cummins

The first farm to be visited was at Tullynally Castle near Castlepollard. This farm is a partnership between the Estate Owners, the farm manager Kevin Cummins and well known Cork dairy farmer Michael Murphy. The group were privileged to have Michael as well as Kevin show us round the farm.

Split Calving Pattern
The 300 cow herd is split up into two groups. 200 cows are spring calving and 100 are autumn calving. This is the only farm of Michael Murphy's that has autumn calvers. This is because there is a winter milk premium and the owners of the estate are keen to retain their liquid quota.

Farm Takeover
When Michael and Kevin took over the farm three years ago it was in a very poor state. 20% of the herd were lame and on the day they took over there were seven cases of clinical mastitis. There was no calving pattern as such and the genetic merit of the herd was poor. Many of the cows were culled and to replace them high RBI Dutch cows were brought in. Michael and Kevin have come to regret this decision.

New Zealand Genetics
Michael much prefers the New Zealand genetics he uses on his home farm in Cork. He maintains that New Zealanders have far better methods of bull testing than anyone else in the world. He says that in poor weather conditions Dutch cows will go and stand by the hedge while New Zealand cows will continue grazing. He also said that the New Zealand cows where far better at getting back in calf and have fewer health problems.

Management Changes
When they took over the farm there were seven farm staff all with their own tractor! Farm labour has been reduced to just Kevin and two other staff, and of course the machinery was also greatly reduced. When they took over the farm there were two main investment priorities:

1. Money had to be spent on improve milking facilities and yard to meet the necessary legal requirements with regard to dairy hygiene and environmental protection to enable the farm to carry on in milk production.
2. Improve the grazing infrastructure by reseeding and new laneways.

Dealing with such large numbers of cows and a large farm area laneways are a priority, however it has been difficult to find suitable stones for laneways in the locality.

Calf rearing can often be a very labor intensive job even on a average sized farm but on a farm where in the spring time 200 cows calve within the space of 6 - 8 weeks it is essential to make the task as simple as possible. This home made calf cafeteria means large numbers of calves can be fed at once simply by attaching it to an ATV and driving it out into the field.

Kenneth Kyle's

After Lunch at the Old Danley Lodge in Athboy the group went on to see the farm of Kenneth Kyle. Kenneth bought the farm less than a year ago. The farm extends to 100 acres and Kenneth has about 90 cows. Kenneths aim is make as much use of grazed grass as possible. In order to equip the farm to suit intensive grazing Kenneth has created lanes and divided the farm up into thirty paddocks. Each paddock has 3 - 4 entrance points to minimise poaching and enable grazing during less favourable weather conditions.

The farm has a 12 x 12 doubled-up parlour which Kenneth is changing to a 16 x 32 swing-over in order to speed up milking.

One interesting comment Kenneth made with regard to cow genetics was that he couldn't get his cows "small enough, fast enough".

Below you can see the spread sheets that Kenneth uses to make decisions on when to dry off and when to stop grazing.

Grass Cover Form

Feed Budget

Key Decisions
Kenneth will dry off his cows at a particular target cover. This is because with a spring calving herd it is more important to have the supply available in spring when the cows will make best use of the grazed grass.

This year he has decided that he will:

• dry his cows off when his cover reaches 2000 kgDM/ha (Approx: 1st Dec)
• continue grazing with the dry cows until the cover goes down to 1800 kgDM/ha. (End of December)

Calving Pattern
Kenneth has a 6-8 week calving spread from mid February - early April. He aims to start calving at the point where intake of the calved cows is matched by daily growth and have them all calved by the balance date where the growth rate is sufficient to match the total intake of all stock.

Deferred Grazing

The highlight of the trip was the chance to see deferred grazing in action. Kenneth closes off up to one third of his farm in late summer for deferred grazing. By the time these areas are grazed by the dry cows in November & December they have massive grass covers. The dry cows are block grazed very tightly and forced to eat right down. They are moved once a day. Here you can see the cows waiting to be moved. When they are moved they get right down to the business of grazing which they do in an aggressive manner. Because the cows are dry and the the dry matter of the grass is very low it is not necessary of offer the cows water. Michael Murphy said that at his home farm in Cork he always offers his dry cows water once a week but very few take it.

The advantages of this system are:

• Less silage making
• Less slurry handling
• No fertilizer applied once paddocks are closed off
• Stemmy grass makes ideal feed for dry cows
• Great preparation for any planned spring reseeds
• Even if not reseeding will still renovate paddock

Main North Down Grassland Management Team Page
Jason Rankin's Dairy Page
Greenmount College

Page written by Jason Rankin with the assistance of Gareth Gormley & Dr. David Patterson
15th January 1997