Good people doing the fundamentals well are at the core of great performance for sustainable grassland farmer of the year Mike Ahern in Ballyduff, Co Waterford.

Mike returned home to farm over 17 years ago, after completing the farm management diploma in Clonakilty Ag college.

He is married to Anne and the couple have six young children. In 2014, Mike entered a farming partnership with his parents, Pat Joe and Mary Ahern, who remain very involved in the business today.

After time spent working with the Guiney family in New Zealand, well known for their low-cost approach to a grass-based system, Mike began implementing some of his learning at home.

The home block has grown in numbers from 100 cows up to 292 cows over the last decade. Mike recently took on the lease of another 130-cow farm, seven kilometres up the road.

Mike credits his parents with giving him the opportunity to take on the farm at a young age.

“They allowed me to make my own mistakes in order to grow and improve the business. Nothing was ever a big issue.”

Since returning to the farm, Mike has been implementing key pillars for success. The business is built on good grassland management, strong genetics and having good people involved.

People

Mike was adamant in sharing the importance of having good people at the core of the business.

“We are very lucky to have excellent people working with us. Myself and dad are very much involved in the day-to-day running, with Mam doing all the book work. On top of that we’ve three brilliant full-time staff that know the farm inside out.”

Cathal Galvin has been on the farm since the age of 16. The decision was made in 2020 to lease an additional block and offer Cathal the option of managing it, while buying up a share of the cows.

Mike stated the decision was a no-brainer: “It’s been a good success so far. I have practically no involvement in that farm. Cathal’s a brilliant fella and he’s capable of looking after it himself. We knew we needed to keep him in the business, so that was the obvious step to take.”

On the home farm, Paul Veale has been working with the Aherns for over 10 years, while Cathal’s younger brother Rory is also full time on the farm.

Mike stressed the importance of the team behind the scenes.

“We like to think we treat the lads working with us well and they pay us back in spades. They treat the place like it’s their own and any of them could be left managing it without issue. It gives us great comfort. A day off can be a day off.”

Grass

The competition for sustainable grassland farmer of the year was primarily based on grass measurement data over a three-year period from 2022 to 2024. The competition was based only on the home farm, not taking account of the leased unit.

Over the three-year period the farm grew an average of 14.2t/DM/ha, with 8.7 grazings per paddock. The milking platform consists of 90ha, with a stocking rate of 3.3 LU/ha. There is a further 52ha of out-blocks, which provides silage for both farms, with some maize and grains grown on these blocks. Overall stocking rate on the farm is 2.2 LU/ha, which Mike is comfortable at.

The farm is located just outside Ballyduff, on primarily free-draining soils. The farm is high up and quite exposed to the wind, meaning it gets dry very quickly. According to Mike, the farm needs rain at the moment, after being missed by the majority of it over the last month.

“We’re currently feeding the cows 2.5kg of meal a day. We’re well stocked and this is the route we’ve decided to go, so yes, at times we’re under a bit of pressure, but the key is maximising whatever grass we have. We’d be hoping for rain now to ease the pressure.”

There’s a massive focus on maintaining grass quality on the farm at all times of the year. The farm is walked weekly and decisions are made based on this.

“We only go into covers under 1,500kg/DM/ha unless we’re really stuck for feed. We do our best to keep quality as high as possible.

“At this time of year, we might pre-mow an occasional paddock, even if it’s only 1,400kg/DM/ha of a cover. It just takes that stem out and cows will skin it the next time round. We aim to only do this once a year in a paddock.”

Clover

Clover has been a relatively good success on the farm. Prior to last year, over half the swards contained clover. A tricky year in terms of weather in 2024 saw clover rates drop back, as grazing management was a challenge. Mike is confident this year will see this clover bounce back.

All good clover paddocks get half rate nitrogen from June on. Eight per cent of the farm has been reseeded to date for 2025. Reseeds were done in mid-April, but were slow to come.

These reseeds are up now after a second germination. They were sprayed with Pro-clova last Friday. These reseeds will be grazed for the first time at a cover around 800-1,000kg/DM/ha, as long as the root is established and the grass plant isn’t pulling out of the soil. “Little and often” was the key message from Mike around spreading chemical nitrogen on clover paddocks.

Paddocks with clover are marked with white straps at the entrance. This way whoever is spreading knows to pull back the quantity of the spread. The rest of the farm is getting a unit a day of protected urea plus sulphur after the cows. The milking platform farm is optimum for pH, with the majority of the soils index three or four.

Reseed beginning to establish after late germination.

Genetics

The farm is using all LIC genetics for the last 10 years. It was all Holstein cows before this, but Mike feels those higher-yielding cows struggle to keep up production and fertility when supplementary feeding levels drop off.

His current cow is roughly 530kg bodyweight and producing 520kg of milk solids. The target is fat levels at 5% and protein of 4%. On average cows are getting 800kg of concentrate per year. This was up to 1.2t in 2024, with poor weather conditions.

All bulls used are daughter-proven. Sexed semen is used for the first round. Mike is in his first year using collars and has found them a help for timing of sexed AI.

After the first-round cows receive a beef AI straw. The majority of bulls used are Belgian Blue and Charolais, with calves sold in the mart.

According to Mike, the cows have no bother calving those beef bulls.

“They’ve a wide pelvis and it’s rare we have to handle them. Those type of calves are a lot more saleable and it’s peace of mind knowing you’ll be able to sell them every spring.”

Facilities

Over the years, the farm has invested in making life easier on both the man and the cow. All heifers are contract-reared by Mike’s aunt. This allows the focus of the farm to remain on cows and grass.

Ten years ago, Mike and his father were considering extending the parlour from a 12-unit double up. By the time the costs were added up for changing the collecting yard and adding extra milking units, it became clear a 40-unit rotary would come to a similar overall cost.

“At the time there wasn’t a big difference in costs. A rotary would give us the option of milking more cows if land came up and it just makes the whole process quicker. From getting cows in, to finishing milking, the job is done in an hour and a half.”

Slurry storage is sufficient with surplus cubicles available. An automatic calf feeder was purchased last year for the rearing stage before calves leave for the contract-rearer’s farm.

The farm is part of a five-farm machinery co-op. Machines like the slurry tanker and post-driver for example are shared by five farms. This is a big saving on capital investment and reduces the amount of time the machine sits idle in the yard.

Forty-unit GEA rotary parlour on the farm.