Glanbia hosts farm walk in Cootehill Co. Cavan

There was a good turnout of local farmers at the recent Glanbia Optimum Dairy Cow nutrition post-calving event, on the Brady family farm in Cootehill, Co. Cavan.

Speakers on the day covered topics that included; managing the dairy cow in the 8 weeks post calving, BCS loss and the subsequent effect on fertility, spring grass and grazing management, and soil fertility management.

Animal and Soil Fertility Focus

Ciaran Brady milks a herd of 169 cows alongside his son Brendan in Cootehill, co. Cavan.

A big emphasis is placed on animal and soil fertility on farm, highlighted in some of the figures achieved by the father and son duo.

As of the week including the 14th of February, 109 cows of the 169 calved had calved over a period of 22 days, with the aim of reducing a 13 week breeding season in 2018 to 12 weeks in 2019.

During this same time period, Ciaran had completed 18 grazings on the 150 acres milking platform.

Heavy Farm Management

Often described as a heavy farm, Ciaran banished any claims around being unable to achieving grazing targets on heavy soil types and being unable to return cows back to grass early in the grazing season.

Ciaran stressed the importance of good grazing infrastructure on farm and good grassland management practises.

He also believes it is important to to meet the freshly calved cow’s requirements through feeding a consistent level supplementary concentrates, buffer feeding strategically and implementing all specialist advice available to him in the area of nutrition.

First Published 26 February 2019