Maurice Smiddy

Maurice Smiddy is milking 180 cows on his family farm in Ahavine, Ballymacoda, Co. Cork. His cow type is a Holstein Friesian delivering 530 kg milk solids per cow, with an average herd EBI of 140 Euro. His grazing season length extends from the middle of February to early November depending on weather conditions. His farm soil type varies from a moderately drained brown earth soil to a black peaty soil type. He plans to maintain current stock numbers and focus more on growing more grass and reducing his overall chemical fertiliser use. Maurice recently (January 2021) upgraded his fertiliser spreader. Its got all the bells and whistles in terms of a GPS guidance unit and a in tractor control monitor to calibrate fertiliser use to the desired rate. It automatically records fertiliser use on each individual field, supplying the farmer with invaluable information so that he can track his performance. He has already made big savings on fertiliser use through this purchase and believes it will pay for itself in the long term.