Paudie O’Brien – Disadvantaged Land Winner

Enterprise: Dairy Farming

From: Firies, Kilarney, Co. Kerry

Farm Size: 32 Ha (25Ha Milking Platform)

Annual Tonnage: Avg 14 T Grass DM/Ha (3 yr avg)

Number of Grazings: 8.1 Grazings/Paddock/Year

Stocking Rate: 2.7 LU/Ha (Milking Platform)
2.6 LU/Ha (Whole Farm)

KgMS/Ha: 850 KgMS/Ha (Whole Farm)

Paudie is the 2019 Disadvantaged Land Grassland Farmer of the Year. Paudie farms with his wife Pauline in Co. Kerry, and together they run a 75 cow spring calving herd. Most of their farm is heavy soils with some peat soils but they still manage to have a have a grass based system of milk production. How do they achieve this? The answer is through excellent grazing infrastructure along with a flexible approach to grazing animals. Significant investment has taken place in developing spur roadways to improve access to grass by animals particularly during periods of difficult weather.

Grassland Performance 2020

Paudie’s grassland performance will be added to this section at the key stages of the 2020 grazing season

Start of Grazing 2020 

 

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Start of 2nd rotation

Mid-season

August -building up

Start of closing off

End of grazing 2020