John McCabe -IGA council member and Teagasc
The 2025 Dairy Summer Tour was a prime example of the uniqueness that the Irish Grassland Association events have to offer its members. Large numbers of interested farmers, on buses, visiting two of the top grassland farmers in the country gaining insights into the long-term performance and decisions of high performing grassland farms while reconnecting with old acquaintances and fellow grassland enthusiasts.
This year’s hosts, the Bermingham’s and the Twomey’s are dairy farming families that have built their systems around Ireland’s competitive advantage –grazed grass. Over 600 people enjoyed the injection of positivity that Kevin Twomey brought as he gave his thoughts on young people getting started in dairying, and they witnessed a masterclass in dairy cow grazing from Mike Bermingham who, since he started dairying in 2014, has established himself as one of the best grassland managers on the globe.
Kevin and Margaret Twomey bought the beautiful farm they live on in the Blackwater valley near Ballyhooly Co. Cork in 1992 with backing from the home farm where his parents and brothers were already farming. This was one of the key take aways from the day. Kevin’s parents and brothers had no space for him so they made space – by using the home farm as the “mothership” whereby they secured finance and helped Kevin get going on his own farm. This was seen by those in attendance as a great solution for farms with more than one successor interested.
The size of Kevin and Margaret’s business has grown at about 10% per year. The pain of this sort of growth was mentioned by Kevin – building up numbers and improving land, cost a lot in the expansion years but the money was always spent in high return areas. In quota times, it involved acquiring more quota. 2009 was mentioned as a significant time in their lives. The tough year taught them that they had built a very resilient system when they still turned a profit in one of the tightest years in memory. This strong business model gave them the confidence to start replicating what they were doing. In the run up to quotas going, the Twomey’s leased a dairy farm and implemented the same system. They have since done this a number of times which requires lots of employed help.
The Twomey’s are highly skilled in the area of employing staff and pulling strings to help the team work well together. Margaret Twomey spoke about her involvement in the business and the pivotal influence she plays, especially in the area of leadership. She places great thought into who works with who, into the social side of the house (a lot of their staff are from different parts of the country). All staff come together for get togethers – monthly on farm discussion/info sessions and social nights outs. WhatsApp groups are used to communicate effectively across the farms.
Both Kevin and Margaret are passionate about helping young people get started in dairying – from farm assistant roles to farm management and up to contract farming agreements – there is a rung on the ladder for everyone and what is common across every staff member is the opportunity to learn the practical skills required to run a grass based spring calving dairy system and if interested – the business element of running a dairy farm business.
Attendees heard from two young men that the Twomey’s have helped get started. Erick Collins has just leased a dairy farm in Galway, having spent a few years with the Twomey’s managing one of their farms. In his time with the Twomey’s he gained three extremely useful things – cows (through leasing cows back to the Twomey’s, and through youngstock), a track record for the banks (cow leasing business) and business acumen. Owen Ashton, has followed in similar suit but has stayed with the Twomey’s – deciding to take on a contract farming arrangement and leasing cows. Owen runs one of the farms – receiving a management fee for his and all other labour required and he can do what he wishes with that fee. He also owns and leases a good proportion of the cows back to the business. There are tax benefits to him in terms of being self-employed, plus he has more autonomy over his day to day job. The crowd were very impressed with these forward-thinking young people as well as the Twomey’s numerous actions for giving young people a start. It is no doubt that Kevin Twomey sparked a new conversation on generational renewal on the 23 July – can we do more for young, interested people? Is there space to let them start building equity in cow numbers for only a small cost to your business?
The home farm has 475 cows stocked at 2.8 LU/ha on the milking platform milked through a 50-point rotary and the farm has 500 cubicles. Overall stocking rate is around 2.24 LU/ha. The grass grown has decreased from roughly 14.5 t DM/ha to 12.5 t DM/ha in recent years – Kevin equates roughly half of this reduction to recurring soil moisture deficits and half to lower chemical nitrogen.
The genetics of the farm are impressive, with the herd being in the top 4% EBI nationally. Kevin says that they don’t aim for the top 10% of performance on a per cow basis. The milk solids sold per cow was 439 kg in 2024, and the milk solids delivered for the whole farm was
952 kg/ha.
Costs were outlined on the day by Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist. He presented the impressive fact that the Twomey’s operate at 3.3 c/l less cost than the national average even with full employed labour, plus the fact that there is less yield/cow to dilute the costs compared to the national average. Much of this is down to cost control, with some of the fixed costs down to the stage of development and size of the farm, but the majority of the cost control coming from the usage of inputs (strict grass-based model that has avoided
outblocks and very high stocking rates on the milking platform). The scale was discussed but the conclusion was that even if Kevin and Margaret farmed 100 cows, they would still be low-cost operators due to their mindset and approach.
The IGA and all those who attended the event are indebted to the Twomey’s for their hospitality. The visit was topped off by a tasty lunch where 600 people were fed in 22 minutes and dined at tables set up in sheds that the Twomey’s had power-washed out for the occasion.
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