The History of Shinagh Dairy Farm

The EU Cap reform in 2008 signalled the removal of milk quotas from 2015 on. To prepare for this Ireland was allocated an extra 1 percent a year from 2009 to 2014 along with an ease of the butterfat quota. The Department of Agriculture allocated some of this national quota to Teagasc for them to setup new dairy operations to show how this could be done post quota and highlight the lessons to be learned in a start-up dairy operation.

Teagasc, in the person of Padraig French approached Shinagh Estates who owned a farm in Bandon, to see would they be interested in converting the farm to dairy. This had previously been an AI station where the progeny of AI bulls was fattened. Subsequent to that the farm was rented out to local farmers for silage and grazing. There was calf and beef housing on the farm.

Carbery were partners with Teagasc since 1998 in a Joint Farm Development programme in West Cork. This involved promoting best practise to improve farm profitability by focusing on improving the money, breeding, calving and grass management on farms. There was a network of monitor farmers in the Carbery area who demonstrated these key profit drivers by having public events on their farms. John Mc Namara, Teagasc was the Co-ordinator of this programme. Carbery released John to become the farm advisor to the startup dairy farm in Shinagh. Kevin Ahern was recruited to the position of Farm Manager.

Farm Conversion

The conversion of the beef farm to a dairy farm began in 2010. There was a new milking parlour built in the centre of the farm. The logic behind this was to minimise the amount of walking the cows would have to do during the grazing season. This location created many discussions in later years as it was 300 meters away from the cow housing. The beef slatted house was converted into a cubicle house for 180 cows. There were sufficient silage pits, calf housing, and calving boxes on the farm. A paddock system, farm roadways and water system had to be installed and 50% of the farm reseeded.

The first stock were bought as bulling heifers in 2010 and ran with an Angus stock bull on the farm. James O’Loughlin, Teagasc Moorepark sourced all the initial stock. The objective was to source them from as few farms as possible and strict disease protocols were adhered to. The main criteria for purchasing was high EBI animals with an equal weighting for production and fertility. The initial 200 heifers that calved down in 2011 consisted of 50% Holstein or Friesian, 25% Jersey cross Holstein/Friesian, 25% Norwegian red cross Holstein/Friesian.

200 heifers calved down in the spring of 2011, with 57% calving in the first 6 weeks. Kevin Ahern was asked many times over the years of the difficulty of milking a herd of all heifers and in his usual style made light of the work involved in doing so. He improved this initial 6-week calving pattern to a consistent 85% over the following years.

Farm Finance

All this farm redevelopment and stock purchase cost money! A separate company “Shinagh Dairy Farm” was set up, which leased the land (78 ha) and buildings from the farm owners, Shinagh Estates on a 15-year lease at €450 per hectare excluding single farm payment.

The new company then had to source finance for the conversion of the leased farm to dairy and for the purchase of stock. All the financial institutions were approached regarding financing this start up dairy operation. Eventually, Ulster Bank was chosen as the main lender and loaned €560,000 of a total capital budget of €820,000. The Co-op owners of Shinagh Estates: Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird put €260,000 of their own money in as equity.

The objective of the farm was to make a return on all the factors employed; land, labour and capital. Shinagh Dairy Farm rented the land and buildings from Shinagh estates at an arm’s length annual rent of €35,000. All the labour was employed. There were substantial annual repayments on the loan. These amounted to a high level of fixed costs that had to be paid each year.

The farm had low milk production in its initial years, but the herd had high fertility from the start. This helped to keep the costs down. The emphasis was on growing a lot of grass and getting the herd to eat as much of this as possible without any mechanical interference. There was little to no pasture topping done as graze outs of paddocks was excellent. If a paddock went strong it was taken as surplus bales. The calving pattern improved each year, and cows went to grass soon after calving. Cows went off meal when there was sufficient grass available in early summer. Magnesium for grass tetany was applied in the water. Annual meal consumption per cow averaged 500kg.

The soil fertility of the farm was improved by making good use of slurry recycled onto the silage and low index paddocks and additional purchased P and K fertiliser. Lime was applied according to regular soil tests. 10% of the farm was reseeded annually. Artificial nitrogen was applied to the maximum allowed under the then regulations. All these enabled high yields of up to 15 tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare per annum to be achieved. This allowed a high stocking rate of 2.9 cows per hectare with 500kg of ration and 200kg of silage dry matter bought in fed per cow per year.

At the start, the farm reared its own replacement heifers. Next Shinagh Estates took over contract rearing the heifers on the Gurteen farm. When the Gurteen farm was itself converted into a dairy farm, the heifers were contract reared in Fermoy. They are still contract reared, now in Ballinspittle and leave the farm at 3 weeks of age and return for housing in their second winter.

The labour on the farm is provided by two full-time people: the farm manager (Kevin Ahern) and a second in command person (currently, Chloe McCarthy), along with part time labour in spring and for relief throughout the year with total labour costs of approximately €95k/year. Contractors are used for all silage, big bales, slurry, and fertiliser spreading. They are also used for silage feeding when animals are housed. This has helped with labour and kept the investment in machinery low. Kevin Ahern the farm manager always keeps a keen eye on farm costs. The profit has varied over the years due to weather, input and milk prices. The farm has achieved the objectives set out for it first day and lived up to its mission statement of being a “Profitable Science Based Farm”.

Farm Performance

Over the first twelve years, the focus of the farm has been to maximise grass production and utilisation and to breed a high EBI crossbred herd that could calve compactly at the start of the grass growing season and efficiently convert grass into milk solids (Table 1).

The farm has successfully exceeded all of the performance targets that were established at the outset of the project, and this has led to very significant cash surpluses and accumulated profits.

While there has been inter-year variation in cash surpluses and profit due primarily to milk price volatility the farm is now very resilient. The bank loan was paid off ahead of time. The equity the west cork co-ops put in to get the farm set up day one has been paid back. Shinagh Estates has been paid rent for the land each year and all profits made by the farm has been returned to them each year and is reflected in their accounts. The farm has made a cumulative profit of €1,107,247 since it started in 2011 up to the end of 2025. It has also paid the land owners €532,500 in land rent in the 15 years of the lease.

Table 1. Physical performance of Shinagh dairy farm from 2011 to 2025

The technical focuses of Shinagh dairy farm have been to maximise the amount of grass grown and utilised per hectare and to optimise the proportion of the cows’ diet coming from grazed grass, the future technical focuses will include reducing carbon, nitrogen and ammonia losses from the farm and improving labour efficiency while optimising animal welfare.

Held on September 1, 2026, the above first appeared in the Shinagh Dairy Farm Open Day Proceedings (PDF).