Gearing up for calving season

With the busy calving season underway, a Kingscourt dairy farmer says using technology can help ease the burden on farmers during this time.

“We’re just starting to calve, we’ll calve 80-85% in the first six weeks," said Barry O’Reilly. “We have a group calving pen with a calving camera in it. The camera is a good job it saves a lot of hassle. If the cow calves at 2am and is up sucking from the cow it means I don’t have to look at it until the morning.

“We have had it for three years, it’s been great, it allows us to get more sleep. From now until around March 20 it will be mental. It’s a hectic six weeks."

Barry is back working on his home farm after spending time working with a Teagasc farm. At home he works alongside his parents Eugen and Colette and a farm employee.

“It’s my first year back at home. I was managing the research farm in Ballyhaise, my dad is here full time and we have another relief worker five days a week who does some weekend work as well."

Barry studied in Ballyhaise College for two years and progressed onto a further two year farm management course through Teagasc Moorepark in Cork. He says it was very beneficial.

“It was a great course, I was full-time with a farmer for 12 months, with three days a week in lectures. It has a good practical element to it and has good farmers involved for the placement."

With dairy farms busier than ever, an increasing number are using contractors to undertake machinery work around the farm. It's a practice Barry subscribes to.

“I don’t have a lot of love for tractors and machinery. Our contractor lives close by - Eugene Hughes. He’s almost like another staff member.

“He does slurry, bales, pit silage, reseeding, and digger work. The only thing he doesn’t do is feeding and hedge cutting. Fertiliser is the only thing we do when it comes to machinery work.”

The farm has undergone a transformation over the last few years, essentially doubling in size. However, Barry says more work still needs to be done.

“We’ve doubled the herd in seven to eight years. We bought a new farm in 2019 and joined it up with our existing one.

“We’ve also done a lot of building work and have added on a new calf shed and more cubicles. We’re going to increase slurry storage and will put more cubicles in it.

“We have a ten-unit parlour. and because we’ll probably end up milking between 120-125 cows, milking can end up taking a long time with over 12 rows. So extending the parlour is on our to-do list in the next few years. The farm has really changed in the last five years."

Despite being busy on and off the farm Barry still finds time to play football for Kingscourt Stars.

"I’m married to Brenda who is a geography teacher at Breffni College. We have two kids, Ollie (3) and Katie (1) who are both mad about tractors, farming, and football. We’re living with my parents while we're building a house.

"Football gives me a good excuse to get out of the house and a way of staying in shape. We aim to start at 7 am and finish at 5 pm. Myself and dad do the night checks. "Usually, I’m able to get to training. I don’t miss too much because of it - 90% of the cows calve by themselves.