Irish Grassland Association to host two day dairy extravaganza

Event takes place July 17 and 18.

The Irish Grassland Association (IGA) will host a two-day Dairy Extravaganza in Kells on July 17 and 18.

The event will see three farm visits between Kells and Cavan and a steak BBQ evening in the Headfort Arms Hotel.

On the first day, attendees visit the farm of Mark Cassidy in Kells (A82YP57) at 4pm

The Cassidy farm has changed since Mark started working on it in the mid-90s from 40 cow liquid milk herd to a spring-calving herd that calved 390 cows in producing 509kg of milk solids per cow in 2022. The farm is 153 ha, with a milking platform of 115 ha. The EBI of the herd is €207 and has a six-week calving rate of 83%, with all heifer calves being contract reared.

An essential part of this growth is maximising the use of grazed grass in the diet. An example of this came in 2022 - while the farm was affected by drought it still grew 12.8t DM/ha.

The following morning - Tuesday, July 18 - the IGA will host the Dairy Summer Tour where attendees will depart Rockfield House in Kells on by bus to visit two farm, those of Owen Brodie in Virginia and David Brady in Stradone.

The day will focus on how our two hosts have adapted these principles to their own circumstances and we will be guided through the development of their family farm businesses, highlighting key milestones and what success means for them.

David Brady milks 110 cows with his parents Brian and Daphne and also runs a free-range egg business with his brother Kieran.

The main focus of the visit will be how labour is integrated effectively between the dairy and poultry businesses. The EBI of the herd is €212 with €63 from milk and €98 fertility. David’s cows produced 541 kg of milk solids in 2022 at 4.44% fat & 3.63% protein and a SCC of 94K. Feed input per cow was 1.2t.

Fertility performance in 2022 was excellent with textbook KPI’s of 363-day calving interval, 82% 6-week calving rate with 100% of the heifers calved at 24 months. David’s key focus had been on driving milk solids production through a combination of breeding for fertility and kilos of fat & protein using high EBI genomic sires while also a key focus on cow selection.

Owen Brodie from 30 to 205 cows and increased his farm size from 28 ha of 77ha, 20ha of which is rented and has a milking platform of 58ha and grew his parlour from 6 to 24 units since 1989.

Owen has focussed a lot of attention on grassland management and grew 13.8 tonnes of grass DM/ha 2022. This was done by incorporating clover into his reseeding programme to reduce his reliance on chemical fertiliser.

The EBI of the herd is €210 with €46 from milk and €91 fertility. Owen’s cows produced 518Kgs of milk solids in 2022 at 4.7% fat & 3.78% protein. Feed input per cow was 1.1t. Fertility performance in 2022 was excellent with a calving interval of 373 days and an 89% 6-week calving rate.