David's going Dairying.

AntrimGlens

David, I’ve been in Spain for the past fortnight so not keeping an eye on Boards. I’m home tomorrow, when are yous coming up? I’d have a right number of contacts with good dairy farms in that part of the world, and even some good beef men too. What days/times are you needing filled and I’ll see what I can do.
Alan and David Irwin are a unique farm, won’t all be like theirs but I should be able to get you some names.
pity it’s not in a years time as we’re building a brand new 90 unit bull stud at present, but won’t be ready for visitors until 2025. Will be a good visit for farmers.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122384628#Comment_122384628

That bull stud will be impressive

AntrimGlens

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122384639#Comment_122384639

Just to clarify, that’s not me or our farm, that’s works project, although I’ll be heavily involved as PM for it.
We usually bring about 20 bulls up every December from Eurogene and jump them here for their straws plus our own beef bulls.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122332917#Comment_122332917

There used be annual farm tour locally go of to the top farms up the country and old lad here used say tis a fright to be leaving the shlt to go looking at more shlt

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122332917#Comment_122332917

a mate of mine went on his discussion group trip lately

They went to Avondale house and got a tour there and did the tree top walk, talked to the general manager about the whole thing and how she managed the day to day running if it all , went to botanical gardens after and got a tour there and talked to one of the head gardeners who had also worked with coilte in a previous life and got a great insight into the whole goings on there- they all were of the opinion before they met him that he would be anti ag and anti dairy but he was the total opposite my friend reckoned

Went out for a feed and pints after, had a very interesting and enjoyable day he said. Last year they visited a digester and they all enjoyed that too

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122385228#Comment_122385228

Good point. We all assume everyone is anti-livestock these days given the coverage we get in the media. But as your friends discovered, most people either like us or don’t care. It’s only the few professional agitators like Gibbons who go to the effort of disliking us.

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122385370#Comment_122385370

Yes it is. I'm really looking forward to the trip. I put a lot of work and effort into it so there's a few different things to keep it interesting for all the group. I'm meeting the bus in half an hour. I'll enjoy a pint Thursday night when I get everyone back in one piece.

cjpm

A buddy of mine had organised a stag. He counted the group repeatedly and was freaking out that someone was missing, but he couldn’t figure out who it was. Turns out he was forgetting to count himself as he was so used of counting his own cattle….

Wildsurfer

I can't help wondering what kind of lads are in David's group that he's worrying about them all making it home.…

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392592#Comment_122392592

It's a long way to Tipperary.

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392592#Comment_122392592

The kind of lads you would want on a night out for a bit of craic

Water John

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392759#Comment_122392759

Don't be making that suggestion. The Tipperary referred to in the song was a brothel in London.😂

davidk1394

Hello everyone, I wanted to give ye a synopsis of the trip I organised for the discussion group.

It was very enjoyable, the weather was good and the hospitality we received was excellent. I organised a bus to collect us and bring us around for the few days. Our first stop was into Hi Spec engineering in Carlow. One of their sales reps brought us through the entire factory from start to finish and gave us a history of the business, what their biggest selling products are, main markets and their biggest challenges. We spent around two and a half hours there and then went further up the road.

We got something to eat in the City North hotel and went onto Redhouse Holsteins. Here we met David and Alan Irwin. They had tea, coffee and biscuits out as well as a few bottles of beer. They gave us a slide show on what they do, genetics, output and the day to day management of the farm. They put a lot of effort into genetics, feeding the animals, making good feed for their animals and cow comfort, but they also get high output from their animals which creates demand for their stock by other farmers. We spent around three hours with them even though we could have spent a lot longer there. I had us booked into the Glenavon hotel in the Cookstown.

The next day the group visited Grove Dairy near Castlederg. We met with John Mitchell who owns the farm. We had a quick cup of tea and a scone before before he brought us on a tour of the farm. While showing us around he talked about the farm system, milking over 600 cows on robots, all year round calving, sourcing labor and showed us the milk processing, products and where they sell to. After that we went to Loughgall to the AFBI research facility one of the researchers talked to us about the grass breeding programme, trail plots and showed us how they cross breed grass varieties. We then visited an orchard nearby for something a little different and called it a day after that.

The final day we left Cookstown at 10.30 and made our way down the road to Stamullin in Meath. We stopped off at the farm of Joeseph Leonards. There’s around 560 cows being milked on the farm. It was in total contrast to the other farms we visited. A low input system, outdoor cubicles with all the work hired contracted out. He talked about his farm partnership, how they got to the scale, his future plans and farm succession. We went to Bettystown for lunch and then head for home. Everything went well and everyone enjoyed the trip. I was delighted that it all went to plan.

roosterman71

I vote for David to organise a boardsies roadtrip

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122451658#Comment_122451658

what impressed you the most.

davidk1394

@roosterman71 sounds good. No farm visits but a few visits to different pubs maybe.

@cosatron I think I enjoyed the trip to see Redhouse the most. Just to see how they get the output out of the cows. The detail that goes into buying and producing feed to get the output out of the animal. I don't think that kind of system would be for me but it was interesting to see it.

Say my name

@davidk1394 did the Irwins go into the foliar and soil feeding, how they are finding it?

And are they measuring soil carbon as part of it?

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122453669#Comment_122453669

About 2.5 or 3 times the average I'd say. It's not hard to find out if you Google them.

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122453562#Comment_122453562

David spoke about it briefly but didn't go into it too much. He showed us the barrels of slurry with the microbes in one barrel and nothing in the other. There wasn't much of a difference between the two

davidk1394

While I’m laid up for the next few days I’ll update ye on how things are going on the farm. We’ve been working in the fields since the end of May. There’s twenty eight tanks gone in so far and only a hand full left. The tanks were bought over a period of three years and the water pipe was bought last year. There was one big 2km long roll and another ten 150 meter rolls. I bought all the fittings and ballcocks this year. The first tank took 1 hour to put in and by the time we were near the end we were doing it in 20 minutes. The tanks are going straight down onto the field with no filling underneath. The main pipe is 40mm diameter with an inch pipe up off it onto the ballcock. The 11,000 tank is being installed today along with the pump and a timer switch so the tank will fill overnight. I was filling the tanks using the well pump but found it was going most of the day constantly.

Most of the roadways went in over the last couple of weeks. I used quarry run for the base and dusted it with two inch down on top. It’s already after making a big difference with cow flow and shaving 20 minute off the milking routine. The last of the sheep wire is taken down and I’ve 18 acres sprayed off for reseeding. I’m going using a Germinal mix of Aberchoice, Abergain, Ballintoy,Aberbann, Garant red clover and Liflex white clover. I used this mix last year and I’m very happy with the establishment of the sward, growth rates, palatability and milk production off it. I baled a few bales off the grazing block on the Sunday of the football All Ireland and I’ve stopped another 35 acres for third cut.

The final big task is to finish the fencing. I’m hoping around three weeks will finish that. I worked away with strip wires and muddy roadways the last few years so it’s nice to see everything coming together. I got the heifers scanned last week, twenty eight out of thirty are in-calf.

It has been a tight year managing cashflow, money and paying bills owed from last year. I have it fairly under control and it has been a steep learning curve but a valuable one. I was over paying the banks on my loan for the last few years as I didn’t use up all my loan. It took over six months and a new loan application to reduce my repayments to what they should be. The business manager I was dealing with was very helpful, all the trouble was coming from Dublin. I didn’t want to go in to restructure it because I was in difficulty as this would raise a red flag down the line if I borrow money again. There won’t be any shiny metal coming into the place for another while. The cows are doing well, they are currently doing 22 liters a day at 3.59 protein and 4.18 butterfat. Production has been up the last few months compared to last year. They are getting 3.6kgs of meal which I upped from 3kgs. I will scan them the end of the month to see how many are in-calf. I has the first case of Mortellaro on the farm the other week and I had the vet out to a cow that was loosing condition and milking poorly, she has fluid around the heart and will have to be culled.

Outside of the farms things are going okay. I went away for a few days, have a few concerts coming up and I'm looking forward to Electric Picnic. My mam is doing alright, she has good days and bad days and we do our best. Being honest I don't think I'd manage everything without the help of my father and a fella helping me while his on holidays.

davidk1394

Hello everyone, hope ye are all doing well. The last month has been fairly busy around here. The last of the roadways were put in and we made a start at fencing them off. The water tank and pump were installed which took a lot of pressure off the well pump. The tank fills overnight and the pump is a three phase variable speed pump. I have it set at three bar pressure which seems to be working fine for keeping the troughs filled. Grass growth has been sluggish the last while. There’s a load of zero grazing coming in every second day, once that’s finished I’ll be opening a few bales. Cows are getting 4kgs of meal, they’re in good condition and are producing around 20.5 liters a day at 3.75 protein and 4.66 fat. We reseeded another 24ac which includes some of the grazing block and silage ground. We disced it ourselves got a contractor in to one pass in the grass seed and then we rolled it. It’s coming up but this constant wind is drying out the ground. I got the contractor in to spread watery slurry on the grazing ground with the pipes at 2250 gallons/ac, I’ll spread all the dung on the silage ground in the next few weeks. The third cut of silage was just finished, I made bales out of it and it averaged four bales to the acre. I’ll spread a bag to the acre of N with K in it as well sometime this week. I have about 400 bales of straw in the shed so far, I still have another 200ish to go. It’s a mixture of pea, wheat and oat straw. It was baled and stored in good weather and is a lot better than last year’s stuff. I’m a lot more relaxed going into the winter than I was six weeks ago.

It has been pretty full on the last few weeks, the fella who was with me all summer is gone back to school. My father took a few days off and went up west for a few days and his busy looking after my mother also. I think I’ll try and apply to Teagasc for a student during the spring, I’m not getting my hopes up but having my name in is a start.

Having the water and roadways finished is a big pressure off me. The roadways alone are taking nearly half an hour a day off milking when the cows are coming in from the furthest away paddock. Cashflow is tight and will be tight going into the winter but investing my money in the “boring stuff” as I like to say is already paying dividend. I didn’t scan the cows yet but I know there’s five empties already. If I calved down 112 cows next spring it’d would be seven rows of the parlor and would be enough for me at to handle at the moment. I’m going to a physio to try and get my ankle right for next spring, for what seemed like a simple twisted ankle, it caused a bit of damage.

davidk1394

A few pictures of what's been going on.

morphy87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594647#Comment_122594647

What type of grass seed did you sow for silage and grazing?

Water John

Impressive, any young person would be privileged to work and learn from you. There should be a queue.

davidk1394

And more photos

davidk1394

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594664#Comment_122594664

I’m going using a Germinal mix of Aberchoice, Abergain, Ballintoy,Aberbann, Garant red clover and Liflex white clover. I used this mix last year and I’m very happy with the establishment of the sward, growth rates, palatability and milk production off it. That's for the grazing grass. The silage mix is fairly similar. I'll try find the variety

fulldnod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122594675#Comment_122594675

How much do they charge for the gravel

davidk1394

Hello everyone. I hope ye are all keeping well and ye are looking forward to the spring ahead. I'm just getting started here and I'm excited to get going. It has been a quiet winter here with not too many upsets. I'll fill ye in on what has being going on since my last post back in September. I ended up buying around 550 bales of straw in total, its a mixture of oat, wheat and pea straw. I paid around €9k for the straw and baled it myself. In November I had a group of advanced dairy students up from Kildalton for a visit. It was mainly about getting up and going, how things are going and what I've learned so far. In December my mam went for scans and the results that came back were showing the treatment is working which is great news. The last milk collection was on the 23rd of December and I enjoyed Christmas and having a rest. I decided to finish the cull cows instead of selling them straight away, it'll will be some money coming in in March when things will be tight. There are 15 empties which is more than I was expecting and I'm a little disappointed about it. I gave the cows a mineral bolus back in April which was supposed to increase fertility but it didn't seem to do anything.

There are 116 cows to calf this spring so I'll be kept busy. Earlier this month I lost one heifer after she picked up listeria outside on grass. A cow had to be put down also, she got hurt by another cow in the shed and after a week of lifting her and moving her around a field she wasn't improving. Another cow did the splits but she came right after a few days. Since the middle of January we were back doing some fencing, spread slurry and spread dung aswell. We got away with very little damage from the storm, mainly a few trees blown down and a few loose sheets on a shed. I'm buying in some silage to slow them down going through the pit. I'll buy in around 100 bales at €35 per bale. The pit silage they are on is too good for dry cows and they are starting to get a bit fat. grass covers in paddocks are good so when the cows go out to grass I'm hoping demand for silage will drop off a good bit. I didn't do a full grass walk yet this year but I'm planning on doing one this week. I got a sliding door made up and fitted last week to the calf shed so on cold windy days in February and March the shed can be closed up fully with no drafts getting in on new born calves.

I will be using whole milk again this year feeding calves because it was easier than mixing powder and feeding calves. Cows were out fulltime at grass from February 14th to November 1st. They were out by day up until the 15th of November. I fed 900kgs of concentrates per cow for 2024. SCC went crazy in December, I had too many cows in too small a shed. I am applying for a grant for a slatted tank and I'm going to put in cubicles during the summer. I want to put in a 180ft L shaped tank, feed apron and 150-160 cubicles. If I can afford putting in scrapers I will but if I cant I'll work away with tractor and yard scraper for a year. I will also put in a grant application for a PTO generator and a drafting gate. After a slow tricky start to 2024 I'm happy with how it ended. Cows performed well apart from the empty rate, I got nearly all the roadways in, water in and plenty of reseeding carried out. I managed to clear off all debt that followed over from 2023 and pay off nearly all my bills from 2024 and build up cash in the current account.

davidk1394

Co Op performance figures & milk recording figures.

Green&Red

Your 6 week calving rate is killing you. We started the same year.

I got caught last year with a lot of heifers, 36% of the herd for 2024 were heifers. 800kg of meal.

Different type of cow obviously