CLUB VISIT TO IRELAND
Mary Mead reports on a very successful British Friesian Breeders Club visit to Southern Ireland
A
pril 13 saw our party of 16 meet up at the Fox and Goose, Churchclara, where we were greeted by Bill O’Keeffe, whose family’s farm we were
to visit. We were joined for lunch by members of the Irish Pure Friesian Club and Sean Smith from Limerick, also a member of our club, who managed to keep up with us each day!
Bill is a founder member and PR Offi cer of the Irish Pure Friesian Club, a Board member of the Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA) and very involved with the Dovea AI stud. We walked across the road to see his youngstock and then on to see the cows. We were soon initiated into the demanding system followed by most dairy farmers in Ireland. With wonderful grass available to them and most contracts paid on constituent value, they followed what is generally known as the New Zealand system They had had, like us, a particularly harsh winter, calving as they do in January and turning out as soon as possible. Calves too go out, still on milk and have to be bulled in April from 14 months of age, to keep the calving pattern tight. Quite understandably, fertility is all important and it was gratifying that farm after farm we visited was succeeding with British Friesians. Selection for protein percent featured highly in the breeding decisions. Back at the farm we saw young calves, bulls, puppies and 12 acres devoted to breeding greyhounds. In fact, everything at Churchclara is focussed on reproduction as Bill awaits the birth of his fi rst child! Although we would have liked to linger in the garden over the very welcome tea, Bill whisked us off and led us through the back roads to Thurles to visit the Dovea AI stud where his bull Churchclara Knockout is on test. We were welcomed by our old friend Bernard Zwafferink who had a selection of their Friesian bulls for us to see, some of them being available in the UK. Dovea Genetics is a farmers’ co-operative and aims to provide a wide spread of genetics to suit all farm situations. They have run a Friesian test programme for many years based mainly on Dutch Friesian but with a little infusion from the UK, to provide genetics suited to their grass based systems. We saw a grand selection of bulls, some available to us. Bill then led us back to Kilkenny to our hotel, which used to be the headquarters of the Kilkenny Hunt, where they made us most welcome.
The following morning we were off to visit the Daniels family. Bryan farms with his father, John and brother Phillip, at Kilmoganny, south of Kilkenny. Nearly 1,000 feet up, a keen wind blew. Calves were out and cows were grazing on the highest part of the farm, yet grass growth was impressive. At all the farms we visited, the parents had taken
62 THE JOURNAL APRIL 2010
ABOVE LEFT The Friesian’s strength is ideal for the system.
ABOVE Pat Cleary, Bill O’Keeffe, Philip and Bryan Daniels.
BELOW Cows grazing at 1,000 feet.
a back seat and the youngsters were taking the lead. Bryan has been expanding the herd and the plan is to keep this up in order for his younger brother to have suffi cient cows to eventually take a farm and move them on. His enthusiasm was infectious and we could see why Bryan had been previously awarded Young Dairy Farmer of the Year. The all important milk solids brought the Daniels an envious milk price, currently 27c per litre, shortly to increase by 2c.With their low cost of production, this situation is a very welcome change after the diffi culties of last year. New milking parlours were also a feature on many farms and Bryan’s was no exception. The well thought out simplicity of the handling facilities was most impressive. Again they had bulls on test at Dovea.
Despite great hospitality we were keen to get warmed up and set off for lunch at
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