Tirlan Farm Updates 2025

 11th April 2025

*Winter Milk
** LESS - Low Emission Slurry Spreading

Farmer Focus - Tom Murphy, Co. Kilkenny

On Tom's farm it was great to see cows very content and grazing well. Tom has only one cow left to calve. Thankfully it was a great calving season with no issues. Tom has looked at his data from the collars and there are only seven anoestrus cows plus any cow calved after St Patricks Day that will be checked by the vet next week. Most of the cows have already cycled twice and that is to be expected with a 93% 6 week calving rate.

All beef calves were sold off the farm at three  weeks of age and all heifers calves are now at grass. The milking platform has received 60 units N in total from either PU plus S and/or with slurry via the umbilical system this spring.

After doing a grass walk on Monday Tom knew there had been significant growth so we walked again today. The growth rate was 75 kgsDM/ha so Tom has pulled 6.82ha's for silage to be cut now. This has given the farm an AFC of 675kgsDM/ha. We did a predicted wedge for next week with a growth rate matching demand and cover to ensure sufficient grass for the cows diet next week.

Main action for this week - walk the farm!

March 28

*Winter milk 

Fortnightly Review

The last 2 weeks have been busy preparing for our 3 Teagasc Breeding week events. As I write this we have had 2 successful events in Dungarvan and Kilkenny. As part of these events we have interviewed a number of the monitor farmers. Shane Fitzgerald & Steven Fitzgerald spoke at the Dungarvan event. They explained their EBI journey to date, their successful use of sexed semen and how they have used DBI and the CBV to their advantage in better dairy beef calves for sale and in Steven's case weanlings. We demonstrated some of Steven's CBV stock & the financial gain in having as many 5 star animals over 1 & 2 star. In Kilkenny Francis Nolan and Tom Murphy spoke. Despite have different cow types, Francis black and white and Tom crossbred, their EBI's are very similar. Francis has an EBI of €232 and Tom's is €229. Again they spoke of their strategies for breeding, both aiming for as high MS/cow off a grass based system with a SR matching the grass growth of their farms. Tirlan vet, Joris Somers outlined the simple steps in regards to looking at your bulk screening reports, looking at lameness & correcting any issues as all positive steps to a better breeding season in 2025. Local dairy advisors at both events spoke about what traits were important to look at for both selecting your team of bulls and what cows to breed from for conventional semen, sexed semen and DBI straws. It is also important to look at your heifers, are they at target pre breeding weights? If unsure advice was to get them weighed & put underweight animals on a rising plane of nutrition to ensure correct weight at breeding time. Well done to all involved & thank you to those who attended our events.

March 8th

*Winter milk

Out this week I was with Steven Fitzgerald and his dad Richie and student Jack on placement from 
Kildalton College. Grazing this spring is going really well especially since the weather picked up in March. Steven had a Grass Farm Walk on 4th Feb and we looked at the regrowth on the paddock that the cows were in that day. It has about 200kgs DM/ha back received 40 units N between Pro Urea and slurry. The paddock shown in the main photo is the one with the highest PGC, 1700kgs DM/ha just grazed & cows did an excellent job. All the grass and dead material was grazed. While in here cows got 4kgs meal and no silage. The smaller photo shows the reseed from September 2024 grazed 1.5 weeks ago and about 650 kgsDM/ha back and this paddock has got 1.5 bags 18-6-12 after grazing. Main message is to measure and see where your AFC cover is, do not drop below 600 of a farm cover, divide up the remaining grass per day to ensure grass in the diet every day & get chemical fertiliser out and /or slurry.

Please see the following video for info on our upcoming events for March

Teagasc Tirlan Future Farm Events for Teagasc Breeding Week 2025

Also latest Dairy Edge Podcast featuring monitor farmer, David Fennelly  The Dairy Edge - Future Farmer, David Fennelly, on his calving & grazing management

February 28th

*Winter Milk

**Not milk quality results in last 10 days 

Group review

The monitor farms have on average 70% calved but with the difficult grazing weather the past 2 weeks, they have 19% grazed and varies from 5 to 30%. All farms are trying to get out to grass. They are using good roadways, plenty of gaps, trying to let cows into paddocks, one way and out another, and using on/off grazing. Having reels and pigtails set up in advance allows a smash and grab situation with showery weather. All farms are aiming to get as much grass into cows following the SRP and a spring feed budget. It is important to have grass in the diet for everyday of the spring that is possible.

Most of the farms have some slurry applied to lower cover paddocks at 2000 gal/ac to 2500gal/ac in January. This is evident when walking the farms giving a great kick to re-growths. Some have 20 units of Pro Urea spread and with settled weather on the way the reminder of group aim to spread next week. Target is to spread 23-25 units/ac where no slurry has been applied. Soil temperatures have been between 5.5-9 degrees over the last two weeks.

Calving has gone very well with an average of over 70% calved for the group. Extra help with students off for the spring mid term was a great bonus in yards.