Agricultural College Farms
Ballyhaise Agricultural College, Co. Cavan
Ballyhaise College is located 8km north of Cavan town. It is situated on an estate of 220Ha of grass and woodlands. There are 120 Spring calving cows plus replacements. The 60 cow suckler herd is spring calving. Replacements are reared and all other progeny is brought to beef. There is a sheep flock of 230 ewes. This is split into 80 to produce early fat lamb and 150 which are managed to lamb in mid-march to coincide with early grass. The farm includes 50 hectares of diverse woodlands.
Clonakilty Agricultural College, Co. Cork
The Teagasc college farm in Darrara in Co. Cork is both an AGRIP research farm and one of three Teagasc agricultural colleges. It is 139Ha in size, of which 118 is in grassland & supports dairy, beef and sheep enterprises. The overall SR is 206kg N/Ha. The dairy unit stocking rate is 2.75 LU/Ha. The EBI of the herd is €161 and the heifers are €193. The 6 week calving rate is 86%. The cows produced 478kg MS/cow in 2020. The farm grew 14.7t DM/Ha in 2020. The drystock unit had 25 cows calving & 30 calf-to-beef with 55 ewes in 2021. The stocking rate of 2.47 produced 966kg LWT/Ha in 2020.
Gurteen Agricultural College, Co. Tipperary
Gurteen College runs a 1000 acre mixed farm. The dairy has 220 dairy cows with plans to expand to 250, 70 suckler cows (split calving), cattle are finished from both the dairy herd & suckler herd. They also have 450 breeding ewes & 100 acres of tillage. Soil type on farm is brown loam. Dairy herd is made up of pedigree Holstein Friesian spring cows, producing 500kg milk solids. Stocked at 2.89 on the dairy platform. The EBI of the herd is €149. They expect to calve 81% in the first 6 weeks.
Kildalton College, Co. Kilkenny
The Kildalton College farm consists of 172Ha of mixed dairy, tillage, beef, horses and sheep. The dairy herd comprises of 120 spring calving high EBI cows. The beef unit has a suckler enterprise with 50 cows 50% of which are served with AI and the remainder with a stock bull. The best dairy beef calves are finished in the calf to beef unit. The tillage enterprise grows a wide range of winter and spring crops and facilitates the DAFM variety trials and Teagasc Oak Park trials. The sheep unit comprises of 130 ewes which lamb in late February and early March.
Mountbellow College, Co. Galway
The farm consists of approximately 122ha of land divided between a number of enterprises, each of which is run as an independent unit on a commercial basis. The farm enterprises include: 100 plus cow dairy herd (50% pedigree Holstein and 50% crossbred); 40 unit calf to beef enterprise and a 250 ewe sheep flock.
Salesian Agricultural College, Co. Limerick
The dairy herd is one of the largest in the agricultural college sector. There is a 300 cow high EBI dairy herd. The herd is entirely spring calving and the aim is to produce high yields of milk solids, primarily from grazed grass. The cows are milked in a 24 unit milking parlour. A new high index maternal suckler cow herd is being established on the college in partnership with ICBF and Teagasc. There is also a sheep flock of 150 March lambing ewes.