7 days ago
Watch: Milking 66 cows with the help of young daughter in Wexford
Dairy farmer Sean Tracey, based in Paradise, Tomhaggard, Co. Wexford is milking 66 cows with great help from his 12-year-old daughter Amelia.
Sean runs a simple enough system, where he milks 66 Holstein Friesian cows, keeps on all of the calves on the farm to fatten, and has about 60ac in tillage as well.
He earned the Tirlan East Region Award for his history of consistent quality as he produces milk to the highest of standards while keeping hygiene to the fore.
His farm consistently delivers top-quality milk with low somatic cell count, total bacteria count (TBC), and thermoduric, highlighting his commitment to high hygienic standards to compliment his solids production.
Winning this type of an award is one thing for Sean, but farming in harmony with his daughter makes it all the more rewarding.
Amelia, who is currently in sixth class and geared up for secondary school this September, expressed her love for farming and helping her father before and after school, and every chance she gets.
Milking 66 cows, tillage and calves
The spring calving herd usually start calving down around the middle of January and are usually wrapped up by the end of March.
Sean is adamant to constantly ' trying to show her (Amelia) the ropes just as we were shown it when we were small'.
Amelia insisted:'I just always had an interest in farming since I was little.
'When I was only a few months old, I was sitting in the wheelbarrow when my dad was working'.
Amelia and Sean Tracey
Sean is farming a 210ac farm with 60ac of that going towards tillage, 48ac for the milking platform and the rest going towards silage production and rearing heifers and bullocks.
Sean keeps all the calves born on the farm, which usually accumulates to about 60-65 calves, of which 10 will be Friesian heifers as replacement milkers.
Amelia will often get the job of looking after these and feeding these calves.
Sean will use Friesian AI on selected stock for the first three weeks of the breeding season and then he will let out stock bulls to serve the rest. There are two Aberdeen Angus bulls running with the herd at the minute.
This usually leaves Sean with 50-55 Angus bull and heifer calves with a few Friesian bulls. He will usually fatten and sell the heifers to about 19 months-of-age and the bullocks to about 26 months-of-age.
The Tracey's cows out grazing
On the cows side of things, Sean takes pride in producing top quality milk through a primarily grass-fed diet and makes top quality silage. He produced one of the best quality silage in the region this year, with a dry matter digestibility of 77%.
Sean fed about 1.5t/cow last year, which is above 500kg/cow more than usual due to the bad grass growing year and the difficult wet spring.
Cows produced on average in 2024, 15.71 L/cow with 4.32% fat and 3.57% protein, which accumulates to 443kg of milk solids.
The British Friesian type cow that Sean is constantly trying to breed
Somatic cell count (SCC) for the year was 88,000 cells/ml, which is hugely impressive and said that this is achieved through 'doing the basics right'.
He said that he does a boiling hot wash every day, keeps up to date with changing liners, and uses his milk recording data to pick out the problem cows, which will be culled.
He also said that himself and Amelia spend a good bit of time keeping the parlour, the grazing infrastructure, roadways, and sheds hygienic and clean, all of which aids in producing quality milk.
The farmer also keeps on top of lameness through hoof trimming every two or three months and foot bathing every three weeks.
Sean is also very thankful for having great neighbours around him.
He said: 'if you're moving cattle, the neighbours would come down and give a hand. We always try to help one another out, which is great'.
Generation renewal
One of the key concerns in the dairy and agricultural industry as a whole at the minute is the topic of generation renewal and actually providing an industry that is attractive for young people to pursue.
The perception can often be that the likes of dairy farming is pure hardship for little reward, but Sean is showing Amelia every step of the way that there is a future and a career to be had from farming.
However, there has to be an interest in the industry in order to enjoy and pursue it and Amelia said: 'I've always had interest in farming and I want to do it when I'm older.'
'I want to keep doing the dairy and the beef and a bit of tillage and a bit of everything,' Amelia added, before Sean interrupted about going to college first.
Amelia walking through the herd of cows
Like all industries, there are good years and there are bad years. The frustrating thing in agriculture in recent years has been the drastic fluctuation in the cost of production and milk price in recent years.
The hope is that major price fluctuations have settled and that there has to be a profit motive on the farm now, otherwise it is not going to attract younger people who already love farming, like Amelia.
Realistically what a young person wants is a good work life balance, structured free time, and a good level of income. Through being out on the farm from a very young age, Amelia has been 'shown the ropes' and how to manage multiple jobs.
There needs to be a better labour structure on farms with scheduled time off, and a defined end of the working day in order to keep the likes of Amelia involved.
Though there are incentives and schemes available for young farmers, an industry cannot be reliant and built on incentives alone, but needs to be structured around a sustainable family income.
Sean is showing Amelia this through producing efficient and quality milk.
Amelia and Sean getting jobs done around the yard
Family transfers, partnerships, and long-term leasing opportunities need to brought forward so people have a better understanding of what the opportunities are and to get the conversation going about how we can structure these agreements.
But none of this can happen without slowly showing the young people the lifestyle and the work involved in farming, as in order to stay at something and build a career towards it, you have to enjoy it and have a passion for it, which is evident with Amelia.
Sean said: 'She's been out with me since day one.'
Amelia added that her favourite jobs include moving cattle and calves, washing down the yard, and silage harvesting, highlighting her enthusiasm for farming.
Amelia's plan for the summer holidays is to help her dad on the farm and to do any jobs that need to be done.
