Farm Profile

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: 160 – 180 (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
• 180 cow winter housing shed

ClonakiltyAgriculturalCollegeMap (134KB, PDF)