Maurice Moynihan is farming at Ballyduff, Knocknagashel in Co Kerry. The farm rises up from the main Limerick to Killarney road and cows have to walk uphill before they plateau out on a relatively flat farm once you crest the hill.

It’s spring milk on this farm, supplying North Cork, which is headquartered in Kanturk, but with a large number of suppliers in Kerry.

This farm delivered almost 510,000l (36,600kg MS) from 75 cows milked in 2021. There are 56ha farmed and available for grazing. This is a high rainfall area, but Maurice is confident he can continue to develop and manage the farm to allow it to grow even more grass. As Maurice said, getting cows out grazing by 10 March would be good going around these parts.

Maurice took over the farm from his father in 2000, who is still helping around the farm. Maurice has brothers that also help out.

Reseeding has been a big part of developing the farm over the last number of years

The performance is very good, with almost 500kg of milk solids delivered from mostly grazed grass and about 1,000kg of meal fed per cow in 2021.

Milk quality is Maurice’s ticket into this competition and it’s fair to say 95% of the milk delivered has an SCC under 100. Maurice has really taken to improving herd genetics as of late and either dairy or beef AI is now used on the farm, with no stock bull.

The top 20% of the milking herd are used to breed replacements from, while the rest get beef AI. Calves from the herd are sold from the farm or reared on-farm. Maurice is not afraid to show and learn and is part of a discussion group in Fealesbridge in conjunction with North Cork and Teagasc.

Reseeding has been a big part of developing the farm over the last number of years and each year, about 15ac are reseeded to maintain quality grass and reduce feed input as much as possible.