Meet the world's largest Norwegian Red herd, based in Co. Cork
Nestled in north Co. Cork, one farm stands out as a shining example of how Norwegian Red cattle can revolutionise Irish dairy farming.
Mike Dunne, along with his father Tom and uncle Mikey, farm a large Norwegian Red herd in Kilworth, Co. Cork with 400 pedigree cows.
A farm at the heart of innovation
The farm is a testament to how Norwegian Red genetics can shape productivity and sustainability.
Mike's father Tom began breeding Norwegian Red cows almost 30 years ago, a breed renowned for their ease of management, health, and adaptability to Irish conditions.
The farm's extensive landscape includes steep terrain and long walking distances, yet the cows excel without compromising on health or milk yields.
Mike Dunne said: 'Our Norwegian Reds are easy calving, robust, and efficient. They handle the Irish pasture system perfectly—walking long distances daily without fuss.
'Their strong feet and legs, combined with excellent udder health, mean fewer veterinary issues and less labour in daily management.'
Genetic selection and farm success
The Dunne family use mainly Norwegian Red sexed semen on their herd, focusing on high milk solids sire, temperament, and fertility.
The Norwegian total merit indexes (TMI) are primarily used when selecting sires, due to the extensive amount of information available on each bull.
Mike Dunne on his farm in Kilworth, Co. Cork. Source: Dovea Genetics
The Dunnes' careful breeding strategy has led to incredible fertility in the herd, with 60% holding to first serve annually, less than 10% empty rate and a 9-week breeding season, with tail paint being the only heat detection system in place.
Most of the herd have already had two or three cycles before breeding begins.
Almost 70% of the cows receive sexed semen with a 67% conception rate to sexed semen. The remainder of the cows are bred to Dovea Genetics dairy beef sires.
Some of the sires used on the herd this year include:
Krovoll (NR4941)
Hallanger (S4466)
Storflor (S3686)
On the dairy-beef side, a range of breeds are used, including Limousin, Aubrac, Red Angus, Speckle Park, and Belted Galloway.
Working with a red and white herd, the Dunne family can capitalise on the current demand for coloured female calves.
Health and sustainability on the ground
The Dunnes' cows walk up to 2.5km per day for milking on a steep incline, so maintaining good feet and legs in the herd is a must for Mike.
Since switching, the herd has had very little issue with lameness or claw health.
One of the farm's key successes is the exceptional udder health in the herd. Thanks to the breed's natural disease resistance, the farm minimises the use of antibiotics, promoting more sustainable and cost-effective milk production.
The Norwegian Red cows are much stronger and more robust than their black and white counterparts, have an increased cull cow value and a premium market for their beef calves.
Dovea Genetics' Norwegian Red sire range
Dovea Genetics collaborate exclusively with Geno Norwegian Red – the sole distributors of Norwegian Red genetics in the world.
Using both the TMI and EBI, Dovea Genetics offer the greatest Norwegian Red sires available for Irish systems, allowing farmers to continually improve herd performance, while aiding in the production of more resilient, productive cows capable of excelling in Irish conditions.
Benefits of Norwegian Red genetics
Norwegian Reds are renowned across the globe for their high fertility, longevity, and efficient milk production, making them ideally suited to the Irish dairy industry.
Additionally, the breed exhibits excellent udder health and low somatic cell counts, leading to improved herd health and reduced veterinary costs.
Incorporating Norwegian Red genetics into your herd can enhance productivity, improve animal welfare, and support a more productive herd, making them a valuable choice for Irish farmers aiming to optimise their farm.
The Dunnes' farm exemplifies how Irish dairy farmers can harness the advantages of Norwegian Red genetics to create resilient, high-performing cows tailored to Ireland's unique landscape.
Dovea Genetics are the exclusive distributors of the world's leading Norwegian Red genetics in Ireland.
The full Norwegian Red range available from Dovea Genetics can be viewed in the Dovea Genetics 2025 Coloured Dairy Directory.
Contact your local Dovea Genetics sales representative today to explore how Norwegian Red genetics can benefit your farm and help you achieve a healthier, more profitable dairy herd.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
11 hours ago
- Irish Independent
New initiatives needed to protect marine migration, says Irish scientist involved in global study
However, current targets on designating marine protected areas (MPAs) are not enough to halt biodiversity loss, and other measures will need to be taken, a study involving six Irish scientists showed. Named MegaMove, the sharing of data by nearly 400 scientists from over 50 countries informed the UN-backed global research, which is published in the journal Science on the eve of UN World Oceans Day tomorrow. Dr Mark Jessopp, one of six Irish-based scientists involved, all from University College Cork (UCC), said the study was the first of its type in terms of scale. 'The study's goal was to identify areas used by marine megafauna for important behaviours like foraging, resting or migratory corridors, and these areas and behaviours can only be found based on their tracked movement patterns,' he said. We will need a range of initiatives, such as changing shipping lanes and restricting some types of commercial fishing gear Dr Jessopp has expertise in the puffin, classified as endangered in Europe, which can fly vast distances from Ireland across the Atlantic in winter. The epic migration makes the birds vulnerable to a range of impacts outside Irish waters, and the study highlights the vital role of international co-ordination. Similar approaches could be taken to other marine megafauna frequenting Irish waters, such as whales and basking sharks, already protected here, and other seabirds, Dr Jessopp said. The combined research, he added, 'outlines the most important locations for 30pc area protection for global marine megafauna species, ranking them based on the largest number of species using areas for important behaviours'. 'It shows that the EU target for designating 30pc of MPAs by 2030 is a good start, but we will need a range of other initiatives, such as changing shipping lanes, restricting use of some types of commercial fishing gear and restricting placement of offshore wind projects,' Dr Jessopp said. MPAs for conservation of marine species and habitats cover 8pc of the world's oceans, which the UN High Seas Treaty wants to expand to 30pc. ADVERTISEMENT The blue sharks we tracked from Cork migrated south into the Bay of Biscay … and as far as the Canary Islands Dr Tom Doyle, also a contributor, said the study is important for Ireland in view of 'the fair share of large migratory species that use our waters'. 'For example, blue sharks migrate thousands of kilometres and can cross many different EEZs [exclusive economic zones]. The blue sharks we tracked from Cork migrated south into the Bay of Biscay, the Azores and as far as the coastal waters of Morocco and the Canary Islands,' Dr Doyle said. 'This presents a challenge for area- based conservation in terms of where to best place MPAs. 'Results from this study suggest that our animals spend most of their time in EEZs, so enhancing protection within areas of national jurisdiction and as part of a network of MPAs is one of the quickest ways to help our blue sharks and other species.' The other UCC scientists involved in the international study were Professor John Quinn, Dr Ashley Bennison, Dr Michelle Cronin and Luke Harman.
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
Anglers urged to report sightings of Pacific pink salmon in Irish rivers
Anglers have been urged to report any sightings of Pacific pink salmon in Irish rivers this summer, with experts saying they pose a threat to the survival of the native Atlantic salmon and sea trout. The migratory salmon species have appeared in unprecedented numbers in the country's river systems in recent years, especially in the south west, west and north west. They are described as being blue/green to steel blue on the back, with silver sides and a white underbelly. They also have number of distinguishing features, including large black oval spots on the tail. "The potential presence of large numbers of this non-native species pose a competitive and disruptive threat to the survival of native Atlantic salmon and sea trout," said Dr Michael Millane of the Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI). "They pose a threat to estuarine and coastal marine fish species and the ecosystems they depend on. "We are appealing to anglers and other water users to quickly contact us regarding any encounters they have with pink salmon. "As these fish die after spawning, some dead specimens could also be seen along our rivers". The salmon are a migratory species native to river systems in the northern Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. There are established populations in northern Norway and in northwest Russia, originating from stocking programmes undertaken in this part of Russia between the 1950s and 2001.
Irish Post
2 days ago
- Irish Post
Heatwaves have ‘major impact' on spread of disease
HEATWAVES can have a major influence on the spread of disease new research by Irish scientists has found. The study conducted by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, found that a multitude of factors related to sudden heatwaves can have a significant impact on environmentally transmitted diseases. It also found that many existing predictive models related to the spread of disease have overlooked this factor. 'While scientists have a relatively good idea of how temperature impacts some viruses and disease-causing pathogens and parasites, they know much less about the effects of sudden heatwaves or cold snaps, or how influential variation in the duration of these events are,' the report authors explain. Specifically, the scientists discovered that differences in heatwaves – such as how much hotter they are than normal temperatures, and how long they last – can increase or decrease disease burden by up to 13 times. Their discovery and its implications come at a time when global climate change and related extreme weather events are impacting counties across the globe, and their findings have been published in the leading international journal PLOS Climate. 'In this study, we worked with the water flea (Daphnia magna) and a microsporidian pathogen (Ordospora colligata), which is a widely used model for environmentally transmitted diseases, to investigate the impacts of different heatwave attributes,' first author, Niamh McCartan, a PhD candidate from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, said this week. 'We manipulated the amplitude and duration of heatwaves across four average temperatures and four distinct time points at which the hosts were exposed to the pathogen. 'This approach gave us 64 unique heatwaves for comparison.' The results showed that, when compared to other types of temperature variation, such as cold snaps, heatwaves alter parasite burden up to 13-fold, which drives significant variation in infection outcomes. 'A recently published study reported that 58 per cent of human pathogenic diseases have been aggravated by climate change, with temperature changes impacting host susceptibility due to altering biological properties such as how our immune systems function, as well as our behaviour,' Ms McCartan explained. 'From a bigger-picture perspective, this work underlines the need for more detailed, context-specific models to help better predict the likely impact of heatwaves and climate change on different diseases. 'We now know that amplitude, duration, baseline temperature and the point at which exposure occurs have differing effects in shaping disease outcomes, so overly simplified models may miss critical complexities.' She explained: 'For example, other researchers have suggested almost 70 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the summer of 2022 could have been avoided if there hadn't been heatwaves around that time – imagine the difference that a better understanding of how heatwaves alter disease dynamics could have made to countless people?' 'Climate change is also causing mosquito species that carry diseases like dengue, Zika, and malaria to be increasingly found in parts of southern and central Europe, including Italy and France, areas that were previously too cool to support them. 'While Ireland has so far been less affected, the findings of our study highlight the urgent need to understand how warming and extreme weather events can alter disease dynamics more broadly. 'With all of this in mind, it's important that future disease-specific models must account for fluctuating and extreme temperatures, not just averages.' See More: Disease, Heatwave, Research, TCD
