Lakeland winners show commitment

A visit to their neat farm at Clonboyher, Corrawallen soon reveals how John and Graeme Taylor won a Lakeland Dairies Milk Quality Award this year; the impression the father and son duo create is that of efficiency and a love of farming. These lads were born to it and they're dedicated to it. The Anglo-Celt had showed up at their house a few miles of Newtowngore to find out more about how a good dairy farm operates in this part of the country and under the conditions the farming community faces these days. Fair enough there was good weather the day we were there, and September was a decent month, which raised the spirits a bit, though as John pointed out: "In the northern counties the land's not as dry and we were grazing our months this year with weather, in a good year about six would be height of it, where in the south they have eight or nine months." At least they'd managed to get a second cut of silage in early September, "though it's not as good a quality and you get less grass at this time of the year", John added. John and Graeme took the Celt on a brief tour of the dairy and a stroll to the top of the ridge, where we could look back at the yard and the nearest of their fields. They milk 55 cows in their 10-at-time parlour, where the floors and walls are spotless and that air of organisation prevails. John explained that all cows are milk recorded every month and they carry out individual testing on all animals. "We look at the cell count and if the sample is continuously high the milk is removed from the supply to the creamery where necessary," said John. "We treat and test the cow and if the milk doesn't return to the quality standard, the animal is culled." The Lakeland laboratory staff examine the samples the farm sends in and their results help John and Graeme maintain their high standards. The Taylors find breeding "interesting and rewarding" and have a pedigree herd of Holstein Friesians. Their policy is to select the best bulls, with high milk yields, protein percentage, and good type traits, or if there's something in particular they want to improve, select on that basis. It's about "seeing if the traits come through, especially in the milk, seeing if the bull has lived up to its predictions". The Taylors are indebted to Bobby Franks for his knowledge and advice on selecing sires to breed with over the last 30 years (Bobby has recently started Sire Wise, providing consultancy services to the farming community). The family sold 35 milking animals and 15 younger stock at an auction on their farm on May 2, which attracted a decent turnout. As John said: "If you have good yield and good protein, they're good for selling." The average yield from the Taylors' cows is 2,005 gallons a year (the first calving heifers average 1,813 gallons), the protein percentage is 3.33% and the butterfat is 3.83%, so moving on stock is easy, especially as the family is so well established in the area. John's grandfather John Joe and his parents Harold and Betty ran the farm in their days. They used to milk in byres until at the end of the 1970s Harold built a parlour, and things started improving thanks to his hard work and farm development: John explained that the farm produced 44,000 gallons when quotas were introduced in 1983 and now the figure is 140,000 gallons. In a stall next to the dairy on Wednesday, October 21 (the day the Celt was visiting), a newborn calf was nosing around on its shaky legs. It was the first of the autumn calves, and several more will have arrived by now as the pregnant animals in the other side of the shed will have given birth. College The higher yielding animals were still out on the grass, making the most of what growth was left a few weeks ago in the reasonably dry weather. "It's unbelievable the way it's dried," said John. Is he more optimistic now? "If milk prices would improve... we're on about 22.75c a litre now, but it's been a tough year with the grants and everything. It's not so bad during the summer though." Twenty-year-old Graeme is doing a Teagasc FETAC level five and six Certificate in Agriculture at Sligo to complement the NCA he completed at Greenmount College in Antrim, where he was Student of the Year. The father and son team see paperwork as a necessary chore, but as much of it concerns traceability it means "this country has higher standards than others and that helps with disease control - brucellosis is extinct now, though there are still outbreaks of TB", said John. "We're hoping when Graeme qualifies to set up a dairy partnership and expand the farm. It's better for the younger farmer - he has an equal say and not just be working for his father." When John took over the farm from his father the Retirement Scheme and Installation Aid were available to ease the transition, but there is less help now for farmers, an issue on all their minds, especially when the public finances are so tight. The Taylors are in REPS, which means they run their enterprise according to tight rules, from keeping an area for wildlife to planting hedges and eliminating pollution, but they are more concerned about the pressure dairy farms face, having had to invest heavily in new slurry storing capacity. "It's hard to make ends meet with the price of milk being under production costs, plus government cuts putting pressure on farmers," said John. But there's a buoyancy on the Taylor farm too, bolstered by the Lakes Milk Quality award: "There's optimism that the price of milk is going up, and the Lakeland bonus was welcome too, any bit of help is good. It's encouraging to be rewarded for your efforts," John concluded.