Clonakilty Agricultural College Farm
Clonakility Farm Update:23rd October 2017 (PDF)
Clonakilty Agricultural College has been involved in agricultural education since 1905 and since 2012 has been undertaking research in dairy production systems and breed comparisons.
Farm manager - Fergal Coughlan Researcher - Brian McCarthy
History: The farm was purchased in 1905 as an educational training facility and has been involved in education since then. In 2012 a research project was initiated and set up on the farm.
Location: Latitude 51°63’N, Longitude -08°85’E, height above sea level 25 – 70 m.
Area: 84 ha (dairy effective, 29 ha Drystock (beef & sheep) effective)
Milking Cows: 180 – 200 (subject to scientific and educational requirements)
System: Spring calving dairy herd. Typically cows are turned out to pasture directly post-calving and annually achieve a 300-day grazing season. All male calves are sold at 2 weeks old. All replacement stock are reared on-farm.
Soil Type: Free-draining acid brown earth of light loam to gley soil loam in texture
Paddocks: 110 (80 experimental paddocks, 20 paddocks per treatment)
Dairy Infrastructure:
- 20 unit herringbone parlour with automatic cow ID, automatic cluster removers, daily electronic milk weighting and sampling, in parlour feeding, milking behaviour recording, weighting and drafting facilities
- 200 cow winter housing shed
ClonakiltyAgriculturalCollegeMap (134KB, PDF)
Currently the Clonakilty herd is comprised of purebred Holstein-Friesian, Jersey X Holstein-Friesian, Norwegian Red x (Jersey x Holstein-Friesian) and Holstein-Friesian crosses.
Mean Calving date: 16th February
No. of 1st lactation animals: 40
Sires used:
Holstein-Friesian – FR6076, FR4571, FR6954, FR4513, FR4547
Jersey - JE6238 (sexed), JE4989 (sexed), JE5386 (sexed)
Beef – AU4836, SA6850, AA4878, HE6856, SA6346, AU6685, AU6918, AA6331, HE6841
Sub-Indexes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EBI | Milk | Fertility | Calving | Beef | Maintenace | Management | Health |
€162 | €55 | €61 | €39 | -€19 | €20 | €3 | €3 |
(2021, ICBF)
The current research in Clonakilty Agricultural College is focused on investigating strategies to improve nitrogen use in dairy systems. A number of areas are being investigated in relation to this particularly in terms of the use of white clover of nitrogen fertiliser rate and type. A grazing systems experiment investigating the effect of sward type (i.e. perennial ryegrass-only and perennial ryegrass-white clover) and nitrogen fertilizer level (250 and 150 kg nitrogen/ha per year) on sward and animal performance is being undertaken each year. A plot-based study investigating the effect of fertiliser type (CAN, Urea and NBPT-Urea) and fertiliser rate (250 and 150 kg nitrogen/ha per year) on herbage DM production is also being undertaken annually.
2017
- 23rd October 2017 (PDF)
- 10th October 2017 (PDF)
- 12th September 2017 (PDF)
- 22nd August 2017 (PDF)
- 3rd August 2017 (PDF)
- 11th July 2017 (PDF)
- 4th July 2017 (PDF)
- 27th June 2017 (PDF)
- 20th June 2017 (PDF)
- 13th June 2017 (PDF)
- 30th May 2017 (PDF)
- 23rd May 2017 (PDF)
- 16th May 2017 (PDF)
- 9th May 2017 (PDF)
- 26th April 2017 (PDF)
- 19th April 2017 (PDF)
- 11th April 2017 (PDF)
- 4th April 2017 (PDF)
2016
- 14th November 2016 (PDF)
- 7th November 2016 (PDF)
- 1st November 2016 (PDF)
- 25th October 2016 (PDF)
- 10th October 2016 (PDF)
- 3rd October 2016(PDF)
- 26th September 2016(PDF)
- 19th September 2016(PDF)
- 12th September 2016(PDF)
- 29th August 2016(PDF)
- 22nd August 2016(PDF)
- 15th August 2016(PDF)
- 8th August 2016(PDF)
- 3rd August 2016(PDF)
- 11th July 2016(PDF)
- 4th July 2016(PDF)
- 27th June 2016(PDF)
- 21 June 2016 (PDF)
- 13th June 2016(PDF)
- 7th June 2016(PDF)
- 31st May 2016 (PDF)
- 24th May 2016 (PDF)
- 16 May 2016 (PDF)
- 10 May 2016 (PDF)
2015
- 01 December 2015 (PDF)
- 16 November 2015 (PDF)
- 09 November 2015 (PDF)
- 02 November 2015 (PDF)
- 19 October 2015 (PDF)
- 13 October 2015 (PDF)
- 05 October 2015 (PDF)
- 29 September 2015 (PDF)
- 21 September 2015 (PDF)
- 14 September 2015 (PDF)
- 06 September 2015 (PDF)
- 31 August 2015 (PDF)
- 24 August 2015 (PDF)
- 18 August 2015 (PDF)
- 20 July 2015 (PDF)
- 15 July 2015 (PDF)
- 06 July 2015 (PDF)
- 29 June 2015 (PDF)
- 24 June 2015 (PDF)
- 16 June 2015 (PDF)
- 02 June 2015 (PDF)
- 25 May 2015 (PDF)
- 05 May 2015 (PDF)
- 27 April 2015 (PDF)
- 20 April 2015 (PDF)
- 13 April 2015 (PDF)
- 07 April 2015 (PDF)
- 23 March 2015 (PDF)
- 18 March 2015 (PDF)
- 10 March 2015 (PDF)
- 04 March 2015 (PDF)
2014
- 17 November 2014 (PDF)
- 10 November 2014 (PDF)
- 03 November 2014 (PDF)
- 20 October 2014 (PDF)
- 13 October 2014 (PDF)
- 06 October 2014 (PDF)
- 30 September 2014 (PDF)
- 22 September 2014 (PDF)
- 15 September 2014 (PDF)
- 08 September 2014 (PDF)
- 01 September 2014 (PDF)
- 25 August 2014 (PDF)
- 18 August 2014 (PDF)
- 11 August 2014 (PDF)
- 05 August 2014 (PDF)
- 28 July 2014 (PDF)
- 07 July 2014 (PDF)
- 23 June 2014 (PDF)
- 09 June 2014 (PDF)
- 26 May 2014 (PDF)
- 19 May 2014 (PDF)
- 12 May 2014 (PDF)
- 05 May 2014 (PDF)
- 28 April 2014 (PDF)
- 22 April 2014 (PDF)
- 14 April 2014 (PDF)
- 07 April 2014 (PDF)
- 25 March 2014 (PDF)
- 18 March 2014 (PDF)