In this week’s Dairy Focus, AgriLand spoke with Eamonn Shanahan, who has recently taken over his uncle’s dairy farm.
Eamonn – who is from Ballagh in Co. Limerick and graduated with a degree in Animal and Crop Production from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2019 – decided last May that dairy farming was the career path that he wanted to pursue.
Having helped out on his uncle’s farm when he was growing up and running a commercial and pedigree suckler herd with his parents, the opportunity to go down the route of farming full-time was extremely appealing.
Speaking to AgriLand, Eamonn said: “Last year, when I finished college, I was at a crossroads as to what I was going to do. My uncle was retiring and the fact that there was a good set-up in place, I felt it was too good of an opportunity to turn down.
There was a mature herd of 80 cows there, so the foundations were in place to take it over and put my own stamp on the farm.
“Over the next 18 months or so, I hope to expand the herd, improve on the current facilities and introduce more Holstein genetics into the herd.”
Farm details
The milking herd – of 80 cows – has access to a grazing block of 132ac, with each paddock roughly 2.5ac in size. Due to the farm being understocked, the plan is to reseed 30ac of the grazing platform this year.
Eamonn is also running a beef enterprise on the side, which is located on two out-farms that consist of 95ac – in total.
These 95ac are home to 77 yearling Angus-cross cattle, that will be finished between 20 and 24 months-of-age. Moreover, the heifer and bull calves that were born this spring will be moved to one of the out-farms, once they are weaned off milk.
30 of the newborn calves were sold this year, the first time in over 30 years that calves were sold off the farm.
What type of cow do you plan to milk?
As of now, Eamonn is milking a herd of 80 purebred British Friesian cows that his uncle had built up over the last few years.
Speaking about his plans for the future, Eamonn said: “It is a very mature herd of cows, with the youngest cow in her fourth lactation.
“The plan is to eventually produce a cow that is predominately Holstein Friesian. Basically, the idea is to be milking cows that are three-quarters Holstein Friesian and one-quarter British Friesian.
“The reason behind this is mainly just to try and produce more milk, which I feel the Holstein cows are more capable of doing compared to the British Friesians.
I bought in 17 freshly-calved cows in February, as well as purchasing 24 high Economic Breeding Index (EBI) heifer calves, that will, hopefully, be part of the milking herd in 24 months’ time.
“I also hope to buy 10 or 15 in-calf heifers towards the end of this year, which will take me up to nearly the 100-cow mark going into 2021.
“All going well, when the coronavirus pandemic is behind us and if the milk price is fairly good, I would like to be milking in around 130 cows – which I think is a comfortable number for me to manage.”
Facilities
Eamonn said he was lucky to be able to come onto the farm and not have to worry about improving the infrastructure, that was in place, straight away.
The fact that he was able to start milking straight away was a major advantage that new dairy entrants don’t get, as they have to inject quite a sum of money before a cow is ever milked.
He added: “The cows are being milked in a 10-unit herringbone parlour, which was built way back in the 1970s.
I hope to extend it out to 16 or 18 units; however, that probably won’t happen until next year at the earliest.
“Both the parlour and bulk tank are capable of handling 100 cows, so when the time comes that the numbers start to creep upwards of that I’ll have to consider doing something.”
The herd of milking cows is housed over the winter period in a cubicle shed, that has the capacity to hold 96 cows. The beef cattle and heifer replacements are housed – over the winter period – in a large slatted shed.
Eamonn also has a calf house that is capable of holding up to 80 calves at its ease.
Calving season
The calving season is still ongoing for Eamonn, with 55 cows calved so far – six of which had twins. All in all, it has gone quite well, considering it is his first year dairy farming full-time, as well as doing it all on his own.
There are still a good few cows to calve yet, which Eamonn says will hopefully be wrapped up in time before the busy breeding season kicks off.
The cows were served with an Angus bull, with no artificial semen used on the cows last year. According to Eamonn, the cows have calved down with no major issues, which he puts down to the “easy calving bull” that was run with the herd.
As mentioned previously, 30 of the calves were sold this spring; however, the rest will be kept and finished at 20-24 months-of-age.
Currently, the majority of the calves are between five and eight weeks-of-age, with some of these being fed milk once-a-day and, all going well, will be weaned off milk completely in the next week or so.
The calves also have access to straw and are being fed concentrates, with each calf consuming about “1kg of ration daily”, according to Eamonn.
Breeding season
Preparations have already begun for the upcoming breeding season. The plan is to artificially inseminate (AI) 50% of the top-performing cows with straws from five Friesian bulls.
The plan is to commence breeding by the start of May for 10 weeks, in order for the cows to calve down the following February.
At the time of writing, Eamonn was awaiting milk recording results – to identify any high somatic cell count (SCC) cows that he won’t AI. Instead, they will be run with a Hereford bull. Moreover, any cows that have an extremely high SCC won’t be bred.
He explained: “The idea behind identifying the top-performing cows is so that they can be AI’d with a straw from a Friesian bull, in the hope of producing heifer calves that can be reared as replacements and, eventually, be introduced to the milking herd.
“The cows with a moderate SCC will be run with a Hereford bull and the offspring they produce will be reared and finished for beef. By 2022, I hope to operate a closed herd and breed all my own replacements.”
Herd performance
With the peak production period just around the corner, Eamonn gave us an insight into how his cows are performing.
He said: “Currently, the cows are producing 27.7L. Furthermore, the protein and fat content of the milk is 3.34% and 4.12% respectively.
“Between bringing the cows in from the paddock, milking them, washing up and letting them back out to grass it can take up to two hours.
The average SCC count of the herd is 97. At present, the cows are getting 5kg of concentrates daily.
“Grass growth hasn’t been an issue either, as has been the case for farmers in other parts of the country. The average farm cover (AFC) is 950kg DM/ha, with cows currently grazing covers of between 1,200kg DM/ha and 1,500kg DM/ha.
“I won’t finish my first rotation, so I’ll have to make round bales of silage out of the paddocks I won’t be able to graze, which is fine; having too much grass is a good complaint to have.”
Step-by-step
When AgriLand spoke with Eamonn he was in the middle of resurfacing the roadways through the grazing platform.
He explained: “Since the busiest part of the calving is finished up I started working on improving different areas of the farm, such as the roadways.
The farm had everything I needed when I moved into it. However, if I do increase cow numbers, I’ll have to look at renovating the parlour, as well as putting in more cubicles and additional calf housing.
“Nevertheless, I couldn’t be happier with how everything has panned out so far. It hasn’t been easy, but I am thoroughly enjoying it and hopefully – in a year or two – I’ll have the farm shaped the way I want it to be.”
Thanks to Eamonn (and all involved) for help in compiling this piece remotely (and for sending in these pictures). Due to ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions, on-farm visits are not possible at this time.
