16 April 2025

Preparing for breeding with Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farmer, Tom Murphy

With the calving season all but wrapped up and breeding fast approaching, Co-ordinator of the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme, Sandra Hayes visits Tom Murphy in Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny, and provides an update on grassland management from the other participating farms.

93% of the cows on Tom Murphy’s farm calved within a 6-week window and thankfully it was a great calving season with no issues. To maximise the returns from spring grass, along with concentrating the annual spring calving workload to a defined period, Tom will aim for a repeat of this performance in 2026.

To put the herd in the best possible position to achieve this, Tom pays careful attention to the herd pre-breeding, greatly aided by the use of heat detection collars. To date, this technology has identified seven anoestrus cows. These seven cows plus any cows that calved after St. Patrick’s Day will be checked pre-breeding by a vet this week to allow interventions – if needed – to be implemented. Along with identifying the anoestrus cows, data generated by the collars have shown that most of the cows have already cycled twice, which is to be expected with a 93% 6-week calving rate.

Grassland management

Away from pre-breeding plans, it was great to see Tom’s cows very content and grazing well at grass. To date this spring, the milking platform has received 60 units of nitrogen per acre in total, either in the form of protected urea plus sulphur and/or slurry spread via the umbilical system.

After completing a grass walk on Monday, April 7, and repeating the process on Friday, April 11, Tom knew grass growth had improved significantly, with growth rates of 75kg DM/ha/day recorded. Given this and in an effort to maintain pre-grazing covers at the desired 1,400kg DM/ha, 6.82ha were removed as surplus silage, dropping the average farm cover to 675kg DM/ha. Before committing to cutting, we completed a predicted wedge for the week ahead, accounting for growth rate and demand, to ensure sufficient grass was available for the cows.

Walk the farm

Away from Tom’s farm, most of the participants in the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme are now on the second round of grazing. Grass quality is excellent, and this is being reflected in the bulk tank through the production of solids, which are up significantly when compared to this time last year.

As growth rates are starting to exceed demand, the key advice is to walk the farm regularly. This will ensure top quality grass is available to the milking herd. In some instances, farmers may need to review average farm cover, and some covers may need to be taken out as surplus bales.

Table 1: Grassland and milk solids performance from the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farms (Week of 11 April 2025)

*Winter milk

Find out more about the Teagasc/Tirlán Future Farm Programme here.