Dairy focus: Target ‘enough winter feed and enough winter cash’ – Agriland.ie

This dairy focus looks into the farm of Bruce Thompson, who was one of the two farmers that the IGA summer tour visited on Tuesday, July 9.

Thompson is currently running a large-scale commercial dairy farm, with a focus on the environment, managing his leases, and having efficient farm labour management.

Thompson, who is farming outside the village of Ballyfin in Co. Laois, is an eighth generation farmer. The farm which was traditionally a mixed farm is now an intensive, commercial dairy farm.

Thompson who is a 2020 Nuffield Scholar, operates a grass-based, spring calving herd of 270 cross-bred cows on a total land area of 250ha with 100ha on the milking block milking through a 40 bale rotary parlour.

Lease management

60% of Thompson’s land is leased with the cows getting wintered on three different yards, with the majority being housed on the home yard, with all of the calves reared in a leased yard just across the road.

Thompson talked us through how he deals with having a number of different landlords: “We have seven landlords, but it is not that complicated because they are easy people to deal with.

“The leases are viable for our system, if you have a good relationship and just make sure that the lease is going according to the long-term plan.”

Thompson mentioned that it can be difficult going from farm to farm feeding cattle in the winter: “Wintering cows on different blocks does require a bit of time and it require good labour management.”

Managing the stock in the spring time can be “messy”, as when it is a wet day, they are split into four groups and putting them in and out of sheds can be a lot of work.

Dairy focus

Thompson told the crowds that the farms two key focuses are “gathering enough winter feed and enough winter cash”.

Thompson aims to have 120% of his winter feed requirements to ensure he sees out the winter months and to feed buffer silage in the spring if needs be.

Thompson aims for a €200/cow cash surplus to get him through the winter, as he feels it is “enough until the next milk cheques started coming in, as we found things very tight”.

“This is needed as costs are very high and we had to keep extra stock on the farm last spring, things were very hungry here,” the Laois farmer added.

In order to achieve this, he said he has to cut down on unnecessary spending around the farm on things that are not going to compromise his key performance indicators (KPIs).

He is milking his cows through a 40 bale rotary parlour with the herd EBI currently standing at €236, milk at €77 and fertility at €10. He achieved 461kg/MS/cow in 2023.

The herd’s average lactation is 3.1 with the average cow weight at 473kg and achieving 13.7kg of fat and 8.4kg of protein.

His R1 heifers (three to 10-months -old) have an average EBI of €290 and the average bull team for breeding in 2024 was €357.

The 2023 fertility performance checked all the relevant KPIs: 93% calved in six weeks, with a 370-day calving interval with an empty rate of 8%.

In 2023, PastureBase grass records showed us that Thompson grew 13.2 t/DM/ha and has flat lined grass growth of about 13.5t/DM/ha over the last five years.

The milking platform has great soil fetility with 96% of the soil over 6.2 pH, 98% over index three for phosphorus (P) and 84%of soil over index three for potassium (K).

Labour management

This dairy focus will also focus on Thompson’s success, which he accredits to effective communication skills on the farm through the use of two apps.

“There’s a lot of part-time working going on here and bits and pieces, so communication is a big thing. We have rosters because there are five to six people working here on and off,” Thompson told attendees.

Thompson told the crowd that if you were to work it out, the farm would need about three full-time workers, but the number of workers he has is easily managed through the use of an online platform.

One app called ‘TimeTree’ has a shared calendar which allows everyone to know what their days on and off are and “everyone can see it and everyone can change it”, he added.

Along with the TimeTree app, the ‘Trello’ app promotes flexibility, trust and supports the day-to-day management of the farm.

“These apps give you a bit of flexibility, as you will know who is going on holidays or if you’re going off to Electric Picnic,” Thompson said.

Thompson also told the crowd that “we have a farm meeting every two weeks where we discuss what we can do better and what needs to be done”.

Environment

As part of his farming practices, Thompson also tries to do what he can for wildlife and to enhance habitats on the farm.

In 2020, he undertook the Nuffield Scholarship focusing on the plight of the dung beetle.

“The dung beetle basically drinks the dung pads dry – they don’t eat them, they drink them dry because they’re mainly liquid and in doing so, it also brings down the parasites that are free living stages over the pasture,” Thompson said.

Promoting and protecting the dung beetle, reduces the use of wormers on your farm, he said, as he has not stomach wormed his cows since 2017.

Thompson has planted new trees that are strategically laid out for AB lines, for fertiliser spreading, with 30m spacing, so you can drive in between them when spreading fertiliser, meaning there is no need for GPS.

The trees have guards around them to protect the against the cattle. Thompson said that they are “quite nice to see and I won’t be around to see them in full picture, but someone will and it is a nice legacy to leave”.

Other nature actions taken on his farm include planting and managing hedges for biodiversity, planting native trees, incorporating bird boxes, sowing wild flowers and installing two ponds.

Thompson advised participants to “focus on what you have on your own farm and look around to see what you can do in terms of biodiversity”.