- Farmland
Farm size: 74 Hectares
90% reseeded in last 4 years.
Soil Sampling approximately 33% every year
Minimum 2:5 tons of lime spread per acre at reseed regardless of soil sample results
Red and white clover incorporated into all swards at reseed
Only LESS used to spread all slurry
First spreading across all farm from last days of March weather permitting at 2500 gallons per acre. Applied with GPS and pump metering.
2000 gallons per acre applied immediately after 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cut of silage
Total of 16 tons of 46% protected urea and 1 ton of 10/10/20 purchased and used this year.
10/10/20 used on a new reseed
100 kg per HA used on all silage ground for 1st cut
50 kg per HA used after 2nd and 3rd cut
50 kg per HA used on low clover or no clover swards for 4th cut
High clover swards receive only slurry.
Protected Urea applied 6 to 7 days after slurry applied.
Balance of urea applied to grazing ground with none applied from mid July due to high clover in swards.
Approximately 2100 tons of high quality silage cut of 48 Hectares over the 4 cuts
300 bales of surplus grass made from grazing pasture.
- Cows
30 in milk Fleckvieh cows imported from Austria on October 20th 21
68 in calf Fleckvieh heifers imported from Austria during August and September 21
40 maiden Fleckvieh heifers imported from Austria September 21
All above sourced through Cows.ie in conjunction with Genetic Austria 10 cows in milk and 8 Heifers purchased at Celtic Fleckvieh auction August 21.
Of 104 cows milked over the last year, 92 were first lactation
Herd is on target to produce just over 7000kg of milk and over 500 kg of solids.
Target from year 3 is 10000 kg of milk with 750 kg of solids.
All young stock are being reared
Bulls which are suitable will be sold for breeding
Excess heifers, once target numbers are achieved, will be sold at point of calving
- Health
Animal health programmes put in place from outset to focus on disease prevention.
All breeding heifers and cows are routinely vaccinated to protect against IBR, BVD,
Leptospirosis, Mastitis (Staph aureus, E. coli and Strep uberis) and calf scour.
All young stock are routinely vaccinated against IBR, pneumonia and clostridial disease.
Faecal egg counts are performed at periodic intervals as appropriate to determine if any coccidiosis, worm or fluke treatments are required.
Footbathing is carried out routinely to maximise hoof health and lameness scores are well within industry standards.
Health parameters including activity, feeding minutes, rumination minutes and heats are detected by the Allflex collars and monitored daily to assist in detecting cows requiring attention. Health management is simplified as a result.
-EQUIPMENT
2 Lely A5 robots with provision left for a third.
Lely Discovery slurry collector
Lely Vector automatic feeding system
Lely Calm automatic calf feeder.
All slurry and silage equipment owned in house.
- Why Fleckvieh
Ability to produce milk from forage
Excellent Temperament
Very Robust
Excellent cull value
Excellent calf value.
Austria is joint first with Ireland in dairy sustainability worldwide
Austria is first on it's own in beef farming sustainability.
90% of all bovines in Austria are Fleckvieh
