Farm Walk with Award-Winning Wexford Farmer Liam Rochford
The Overall Winner of the 2025 Pasture Progress Awards, Liam Rochford, a dairy farmer based near Cleariestown, County Wexford will host a farm walk on Tuesday, 29th September at 11am. Liam is currently milking 150 cows, with an average herd EBI of €181, and was named Overall Winner of the 2025 Pasture Progress Awards, run through the Teagasc Grass10 programme.
Overall, Winner of the 2025 Pasture Progress Awards, Wexford farmer Liam Rochford, receiving his award from Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Noel Grealish, TD.
The farm walk will offer an opportunity to see Liam’s farming system in practice and hear about the grassland management and grazing practices that contributed to his award-winning performance.
A particular focus will be on how Liam increased milk solids output from 424 kilograms per cow in 2024 (4.32% fat and 3.58% protein) to 500kg/cow in 2025 (4.36% fat and 3.76% protein). Improved grassland management has made a major contribution to this progress.
Liam increased his pasture measurements from 22 measurements on PastureBase in 2023 to 41 measurements in 2025, while reducing average mid-season pre-grazing yield from 1,638kg Dry Matter per hectare to 1,432kg DM/ha. The farm has also increased the number of grazing events per paddock per year, and overall grass grown per hectare.
With 2026 proving a challenging year for grazing conditions, the day will also look at current grassland management, autumn grazing and setting the farm up for spring 2027.
Liam’s 2026 grass reseed will be examined, while fodder budgeting and the different options available for managing winter feed supplies following a difficult grazing year will also be discussed.
All are welcome to attend.
The Grass10 campaign aims to promote sustainable grassland excellence on Irish livestock farms (dairy, beef and sheep). The Grass10 partners are Teagasc, AIB, FBD, Department Agriculture Food and the Marine, Grassland Agro, and the Irish Farmers Journal.