Winner of the National Dairy Council (NDC) Milk Quality Award, the Connelly family hosted a farm walk on their farm on the edge of Tuam, County Galway.
The walk introduced the farm and gave the farmers an opportunity to see how this family achieves excellent milk quality.
The Connellys farm was in dairy and sheep production until 2019, when the first dairy heifer was born.
72 heifers produced calves in the first year and 97 cows are currently being milked on the farm.
Austin and Yvonne work full time on the farm and help with their four daughters who are still in school.
Purchased heifers come from three sources after careful consideration in selecting suitable animals, with the majority of the herd being Holstein-Friesian hybrids, although some hybrid genetics are also present within the herd.
system
The farm operates a spring farrowing system, with farrowing beginning the first week of February.
In 2023, the calving interval on farms was 366 days, with a 93% birth rate within 6 weeks.
The farm has a replacement rate of 19%, with all replacement heifers calving between 22 and 26 months.
The 2023 breeding season will last 10-11 weeks, with dairy artificial insemination (AI) being used on suitable cows for the first four weeks, followed by stallions with high Dairy Index (DBI) for the rest of the season.
The farm is focused on raising calves and will have zero calf deaths in 2023.
It is always a policy on this farm that each calf receives its mother’s colostrum within 2 hours of birth, followed by transitional milk for 3-4 days.
Only about 20 replacement cows are kept on the farm and these are raised whole milk for about 12 weeks in the original lamb barn with access to the paddock.
The Connelly family has developed good relationships with beef calf buyers, including discussing calf breeds before the breeding season begins.
All calves sold are kept for an average of 2-3 weeks.
Replacement heifers and heifers are grazed on milking platforms and all silage is also harvested from the platforms.
breeding
When purchasing strains, the primary focus was on obtaining animals with the highest possible genetic merit.
The Connery family used the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) to ensure that the strains they purchased were genetically superior.
A further consideration was to avoid extremes and keep sources to a minimum.
72 calf heifers were purchased from the Kilkenny and Galway herds.
The average EBI for the shares purchased was €160, while the average domestic herd was €106.
Farm breeding focuses on improving fertility as well as obtaining higher percentages of fat and protein.
Last year the herd averaged milk solids (MS) content of 550kg/cow, achieved from 6,424L of milk containing 4.59% fat and 3.73% protein.
The herd now has an EBI of €198, with a milk sub-index of €61 and a reproduction sub-index of €80.
milk quality
Milk quality is a key focus for the Connery family, and Yvonne does the majority of the milking on the farm.
From the care of the cows to the milking procedure, great care is taken on this farm and this is the main reason why the quality of the milk on the farm is so good.
Milk records also play an important role in overall farm decision-making, from breeding to identifying problem cows to culling decisions.
| average number of cows | Obesity % | protein% | kg MS/cattle | to be decided | SCC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 63 | 4.38 | 3.7 | 418 | 7 | 54 |
| 2020 | 85 | 4.59 | 3.74 | 484 | 7 | 36 |
| 2021 | 91 | 4.59 | 3.64 | 502 | 7 | 40 |
| 2022 | 94 | 4.59 | 3.73 | 550 | 6 | 49 |
At least four milk records are made each year, with the last one just before drying out.
Selective Dry Cow Therapy (SDCT) has been in place for the past two years, with 75% of cows receiving sealer only in 2022, up from about 25% the previous year.
Attention to detail is very important here and only one cow is dried at a time so that the procedure is perfectly accurate.
As of 2023, there have been only four cases of mastitis, two of which were identified prior to clinical presentation by the recently introduced lumen bolus.
takeaway message
Some of the key messages for participating farmers were to focus on the basics.
Follow your milking routine correctly and be careful not to promote the spread of bacteria during milking.
Also emphasized was the focus on making sure the washing routine in the drawing room was correct.
Milk records cows and uses this data for SDCT and monitoring cell counts within the herd.
Connelly’s focus on getting the basics right on the farm has allowed them to achieve excellent milk quality results.
