Dingle farm producing 750kg MS/cow to host Kerry Club open day
The Kerry Holstein Friesian Breeder's Club open day will be held on Ronan Sugrue's farm on Sunday, June 1, in Burnham, Dingle from 12:30p.m. to 3:30p.m.
Ronan is a fourth generation farmer and has been milking cows since 2014, currently milking 90 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows with a pedigree classification of 87.7 on Dingle harbour.
Getting into milking cows, Ronan decided to go Pedigree Holstein Friesian. He felt a higher feed system and higher producing cow would suit him better as the milking platform is limited at 66ac.
The weather in his part of the world does not allow for early grazing and it also does not allow for keeping cows out late into the back-end of the year.
So, either way, no matter what cow he had, he would have to be buffer feeding and feeding extra meal, so a cow that would respond better to buffer feeding and feeding indoors is the type he felt would suit his system best.
Since taking over the farm at 23 years of age, and converting from sucklers to dairy, Ronan has put up a 14-unit Dairymaster swing over parlour, 100 new cubicles, with plenty of slurry storage, and most recently, a new calf shed.
Ronan is urging everyone to call out to his farm this Sunday for the open day to see the cows, heifers, and calves and to have a look around the yard, with plenty of food and drink there for everyone on the day.
Farm system
Ronan is also a breeding adviser with World Wide Sires, so has a keen interest in what type of genetics he brings onto his farm.
All the bulls he uses on the farm are America Holsteins, as he hones in on the total performance index (TPI) of the bulls with a particular focus on conformation.
He also strives for a bull that will give his replacements 'a decent bit of milk without compromising on components' while selecting traits on longevity.
Ronan will use 120 sexed semen straws during the breeding season, which for him starts around the first week of April as he likes to have cows and particularly heifers calving down in early January.
The farmer has a high replacement rate as he carries 60 followers altogether each year, 30 heifer calves, and another 30 bulling heifers.
Ronan feeds about 2.5t/cow and makes a lot of silage to buffer feed his cows as he has 100ac of land rented to make silage.
He runs a multi-cut system, where he cuts silage every six to seven weeks during the spring into the summer months, accumulating four cuts of silage each year.
Ronan's cows grazing away
Each cut will receive 40 units of nitrogen (N) in chemical form and an additional 2,000gal/ac of slurry will also be spread.
The four-cut system along with the extra meal seems to paying itself back as the cows are producing 9,620L/cow at 4.34% fat and 3.51% protein, which equates to over 750kg of milk solids (MS)/cow.
Kerry Club open day
The Kerry Holstein Friesian Breeders Club have an annual stock judging event and open day, and Ronan is delighted to host it on his farm this year.
He said: 'Anyone can attend, it's not just for members of the club – everyone is welcome to come down and have a look around and get involved in stock judging'.
In total, 18 animals will be on display for stock judging, consisting of three groups of different classes of stock from first calvers to junior cows and to senior cows.
Competitors are then going to rank the stock from one to six and the master judge on the day will pick his order, after which the closest competitors to the master judge's pick will win in their respective categories.
There will be three age categories on the day: 12-18 years, 18-26 years and a senior category, with prizes for winners going out on the day.
The top three winners in each category will go on to represent the Kerry Friesian Breeder's Club in the All-Ireland Inter-club stock judging at the Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA) open day.
The Kerry Holstein Friesian Breeders Club officially launched its annual herds competition last week, which celebrates the club's 50th anniversary this year.
The competition is open to pedigree herds. Entries should be sent to Geraldine Harty, herds competition coordinator, Ballylongane, Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry, (087) 816 8281.
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