The IGA Summer Tour is heading to the North East for 2023. The event will be hosted by two excellent farms in the Cavan area, David Brady and Owen Brodie. Farms in this area can face a specific set of challenges from farm fragmentation to dealing with high rainfall and difficult soils. The day will focus on how our two hosts have adapted these principles to their own circumstances and we will be guided through the development of their family farm businesses, highlighting key milestones and what success means for them.
Commenting at the launch of this year’s Summer Tour, Barry Hyland, AIB Agri Advisor said, ‘AIB is delighted to continue our long association with the IGA Dairy Summer tour. As always, the IGA has identified two excellent host farmers for this year’s event. Farming in this area can be more challenging than in other parts of the country, and as such, the focus on grass and cows is even more important. I am looking forward to hearing both the Brady and Brodie stories and how they have developed their farms over the years to overcome some of these challenges’.
David Brady
David Brady is farming in Tierlahood, Stradone, Co. Cavan. The Brady Family business consists of both a Dairy and Poultry (free-range eggs) business. David returned home to farm with the initial focus on the poultry side of the business. At the time, his parents Brian and Daphne were milking 30 cows. Steady growth over the years has developed the dairy business to a milking herd of 110 cows carried on the milking platform of 40ha (2.75 LU/ha), the support block of 30ha carries the replacement stock and silage ground. The poultry enterprise (between 2 houses and 15,000 hens) is managed in conjunction with David’s brother Kieran, but it is an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ requirement for labour input most days. David’s wife Rachel and their 3 children Eoghan, Daniel and Kate all give time to the farm.
Our main focus for the visit will be on the dairy enterprise but we will discuss how labour is integrated effectively between it and the poultry business. The EBI of the herd is €212 with €63 from milk and €98 fertility. David’s cows produced 541Kgs of milk solids in 2022 at 4.44% fat & 3.63% protein and a SCC of 94K. Feed input per cow was 1.2t. Fertility performance in 2022 was excellent with text-book KPI’s of 363 day calving interval, 82% 6-week calving rate with 100% of the heifers calved at 24 months. David’s key focus had been on driving milk solids production through a combination of breeding for fertility and kilos of fat & protein using high EBI genomic sires while also a key focus on cow selection.
In 2015 David joined the Teagasc Heavy Soils Programme and the Irish Farmers Journal Dairylink programme. At this time David also began grass measuring and began the steady development of the grassland productivity and grass utilisation on the farm. The key areas of grassland management we will discuss with David in July will be:
Land improvement & his approach to drainage
Major emphasis on soil fertility
Reseeding & clover incorporation
Infrastructure to achieve high grass utilisation
David will highlight his ‘grass before cows’ approach to steady expansion, his approach to managing the growth capability of the land and the appropriate stocking rate for his system. Central to this has been David’s attitude to testing the boundaries of what is possible on a farm of challenging soil type in a high rainfall area while also dealing with land fragmentation. David has adapted a successful system of grass production and utilisation and is critically producing grazing swards of high quality on a consistent basis. The shoulders of the year pose their own problems and if are not dealt with have knock-on effects for both grass quality and cow performance. David will share his strategy to deal with this on the day. Overall we look forward to hearing how David and his family have evolved and developed a successful, profitable farm and what the key priorities for future developments will be.
Owen Brodie
Owen Brodie is farming with his family at Ryefield, Virginia, Co. Cavan on the shores of Lough Ramor. Owen finished school in 1985 before attending Ballyhaise Agricultural College where he completed his Green Cert. He returned home to farm full time in 1989 at the age of 21. At that stage the farm was milking 30 Pedigree Friesian cows supplying a winter milk contract, there was a cheese production facility on the farm as well as 100 sows. The Brodie’s were farming 28ha, 20ha of which could be described as good quality.
In the interim period, additional land has been bought and rented, roadways upgraded and the parlour upgraded from a 6 unit initially to a 12 unit and now a 24 unit. Today Owen is farming a total of 77ha, 20ha of which is rented and has a milking platform of 58ha. He milked 205 cows in 2022.
Owen has been contract rearing out his heifers for 12 years, and he is in a long term relationship with the one farmer rearing the heifers for the entire time. There is one full time person employed on the farm in addition to support at calving time.
Land type on the farm is a mix of dry and heavy land. In the early 90’s Owen started to measure grass, and put a focus on extending the grazing season. Overall there was 13.8 tonnes of grass DM/ha grown across the whole farm in 2022. Owen has started to incorporate clover into his reseeding programme to reduce his reliance on chemical fertiliser and this will be discussed further on the day.
To coincide with the increased focus on grass, Owen quit winter milk production and began spring calving in 1994. Owen put a big emphasis on cow type to align with the introduction of the A+B-C milk payment system which has paid off for him. His ideal cow is a 550kg, fertile and crossbred cow. The EBI of the herd is €210 with €46 from milk and €91 fertility. Owen’s cows produced 518Kgs of milk solids in 2022 at 4.7% fat & 3.78% protein. Feed input per cow was 1.1t. Fertility performance in 2022 was excellent with a calving interval of 373 days and an 89% 6-week calving rate.
The Brodie farm is an excellent example of a farm achieving high levels of performance under more challenging conditions. As mentioned before, some of the land type is heavy. The farm is long and narrow, with some of the grazing platform over 2.3km from the parlour with steep roadways for the cows to travel on. To access different parts of the grazing platform, cows have to cross two roads, and to access one of the fields cows walk along the road. Land is fragmented, with limited access to additional land in the area to support growth. In this context the growth and performance of the Brodie family farm over time is even more impressive.
Summary
Both the Brady and Brodie farm’s have had to deal with a number of challenges in developing their farms over the years, similar to other farms in the area. High rainfall, fragmentation and difficult soils to name but a few. However, they both have developed a farm system to suit their own circumstance built on maximising the use of grazed grass in the diet. Join us on the 18th of July to hear first-hand the story of this year’s two host farmers.
DAIRY STEAK BBQ OFFER:
Book a ticket to to the Dairy Day 2 + purchase tickets to (the Steak BBQ and Farm Walk on) Day 1 for only €30 extra. This €30 day 1 deal is available for both members and non members!
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