Joseph Egan

Farm Profile

Joseph Egan is an organic dairy farmer near Ballygar, Co. Galway, milking 65 cows at present of which 20 are heifers, with all milk supplied to Aurivo. He is farming 98Ha in total including owned and rented land with a combination of free draining soil and peaty soils. The milking platform is 40Ha. Joe has 30 extra replacement heifers calving down this Autumn and hopes to milk close to 100 cows in 2023.

Milk Solids

The herd supplied 357kgs of milk solids in 2021 at 4.36% butterfat and 3.46% protein. Average milk price for 2021 was 48.5cpl which was 8.4cpl ahead of the co-op average. Average SCC for 2021 was 141,000 cells/ml. The herd EBI is €147 at present which places the herd in the top 5% of Aurivo herds.

Animal Feed

Cows are receiving on average 6kgs of an organic dairy 18% nut at present and for the Summer months this was reduced to 1kg/cow/day. 

Multi Species Swards

80 acres of the farm is under multi species swards (MSS) of which 40 acres was sown in 2022. Joe finds the MSS great to grow large quantities of dry matter in the absence of chemical fertiliser. He is measuring grass on Pasturebase and expects many of the MSS swards will have grown in excess of 11Ton DM/Ha by the time 2022 is over.

TAMS (Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme)

A new 96 cow cubicle house, which was TAMS grant aided, was constructed in 2021 and this year he replaced the existing 10 unit milking parlour with a new 12 unit milking parlour.