John O'Connell

John milks 200 cows on 72ha in Rathduff, Co. Cork.

John is the farm manager on this leased farm since 2018 after returning home from New Zealand having spent five years of working on and managing a dairy farm there.

The soil type is mainly dry and fertility is very good with most of the farm in index 3 and 4 for P and K.

Over 70% of the farm has been reseeded in the past five years using mainly Abergain and Aberchoice grass varieties.

In 2019 his cows produced 518 Kg MS per cow (supplied to Dairygold Coop) from 850kg meal.

In 2020, John’s farm grew 14 T DM/ha from just under 250 Kg N/ha. John plans on planting more hedgerows on the farm as well as trees to increase biodiversity. Along with plans to oversow clover, John is aiming to use more protected urea in 2021.

John is a member of his local Grass10 grazing course.