Future Farm Update- Matthew and Declan Mullen, Kells, Co. Meath

Matthew is farming in partnership with his father Declan, his mother Gladys and his Uncle Gerry,  near Kells, Co. Meath. They are farming 168 Ha, the milking platform consists of 80 Ha. They are milking 340 cows this year.

They have a winter milk contract and calf approximately 120 cows to fill this. The plan is to have a compact spring and autumn calving. Most of the farm needs to be reseeded and the soil fertility of the outside blocks is low. Matthew started measuring grass in 2019. They grow 16Ha of maize for the winter milk herd. The EBI of the herd is €103 and the younger stock is € 179. The calving interval is 414 days.

A lot of money has been invested on farm over the last few years

• New parlour 2019
• Water system and troughs
• New roadways
• Reseeding
• New slurry storage and cubicle shed(planned)

Great growth over the last few weeks. Three paddocks will be taken out to bring AFC back to 750 kgDM/ha.

Cows are milking well at 25.5 litres, 3.96%, 3.6% protein and 1.97 kg of milk solids.

For more information on our Open Source Future Farm Programme click here.

First Published 21 June 2021