Doing the basics well in Limerick

Sunshine and a strong turnout greeted visitors to the Fox family farm in Bulgaden, Co Limerick for the 2024 Kerry Agribusiness Milk Quality and Sustainability award winner’s farm walk.

The event gave those in attendance a chance to see first-hand how attention to detail has helped the family build a highly efficient and resilient spring-calving dairy system.

The Fox farm is run by Ian and his parents Mary and John alongside full-time employee Denis McNamara. Ian returned home to farm full time in 2018 and since then the farm has been going through a period of growth.

Land purchase has been the major investment in the last few years and this has allowed the Fox’s to drive on the cow numbers.

They are currently milking 173 cows across a total farm size of 87.5ha with a milking platform of 48.6ha. The farm is mostly free draining with the ability to grow a lot of grass.

The milking platform is stocked at 3.5 cows/ha in 2025 with all youngstock contract reared off-farm.

Ian spoke about the importance of good help on the farm.

Denis is working full time on the farm while also providing the contract rearing service for all youngstock.

“The additional help allows Ian the time to focus on the management of the farm. Having good help is hugely important. It means I’m not rushing from one job to another, this gives me the time to pay close attention to every aspect of the business and helps in catching and solving problems early”, he says.

Sustainability was an important component of the award judging.

Two years ago, the Foxs set up a reed bed system in some of the drains to filter grey water leaving the farmyard. Grey water is considered run-off from clean yards.

Willows have also been planted in these drains as they absorb any impurities in the grey water.

Ian is very happy with how these have worked out.

On the farm all hedges are allowed to grow up, the sides are cut back but not topped.

As well as this, clover has been incorporated in all new swards to reduce the inputs of chemical nitrogen and improve the carbon footprint of the farm.

The herd itself is black and white with a very strong genetic base. EBI of the herd is €247 with a value of €70 for milk and €120 for fertility.

PTA for fat is 0.13% and the PTA for protein is 0.11%.

The cows produced on average 488kg of milk solids at 4.42% fat and 3.68% protein, with a six-week calving rate of 88% for 2024.

A large influx of heifers in 2024 in order to grow the herd meant average milk solids were back slightly on usual production figures.

Calves for 2025 have an EBI of €289 with excellent genetic potential to produce 5% fat and 4% protein.

This highlights the improvements being made year on year at breeding.

Ian is very happy with breeding so far for 2025 on farm and is on track to have a submission rate around 96% in the first three weeks.

Breeding started on 3 May and after 12 days 105 cows had been served to AI.

Replacement rate on the farm was high last year with 30% heifers coming into the herd.

The herd grew from 150 cows, so this was a factor in the large number of heifers coming in.

Milk quality and reducing SCC was a big focus on the day. Prioritising time to manage issues with high cell count and mastitis cases is crucial for the Foxs.

The crowd heard that the first step is milk recording and then drilling into the results to find the problem cows.

The Foxs pre and post spray and also have cluster flushing installed which Ian says is a help at keeping the SCC in or around 80,000.

Standardising the parlour routine, particularly during the summer months when relief milkers may be covering holidays, is an important practice that should be implemented on every farm according to Teagasc’s Don Crowley. A useful practical tip from Don, is to create a WhatsApp video of the parlour routine which the relief milker can use to ensure every milking follows the same routine each day. In terms of mastitis cases the Foxs hadn’t had many issues so far this year. Don’s advice on the day was, where there are greater than 8% of cows persistently infected, culling is a priority to solve the problem.

There should not be more than 2% of the herd with clinical cases per month. If this is the case, consult your vet and investigate the reasons behind this.

Don says if either TBC or thermoduric counts are rising, take milk samples from the parlour, before the bulk tank and after the bulk tank for testing.

Don says with the good weather and high temperatures, bacteria levels can rise quickly so it’s important to stay on top of it. If thermoduric count rises above 500 cfu/ml there is a problem in the plant, and it should be dealt with quickly.

Maximising utilisation of grass in the diet is a major focus on the Fox farm. The key takeaway message was the importance of walking the farm and measuring covers. Ian is walking the farm every five days at the moment. Average farm cover is currently at 196kg/DM/cow on farm with cows getting an allowance 15kg of grass and 3.5kg of concentrates.

Several paddocks had been taken out for bales in the last couple of weeks, but farm cover was still slightly ahead on the last walk as growth rates were higher at 86kg than Ian had expected.

The Foxs have incorporated white clover into all reseeds carried out on farm at a rate of 2kg/ac per 12kg/ac mix. Good soil fertility and grazing management have allowed for the establishment of these swards with the majority having 15-20% clover levels. All reseeding and oversowing are done before the end of April.

“Timing of post-reseed management is critical to maintain high levels of clover and establishing good swards. When post emergence spraying, follow the instructions for the products used. For ProClova herbicide, spray should be applied when the grass is at the three-leaf stage and the third leaf has emerged on the clover plant,” according to Michael Egan of Teagasc.

He says that chemical nitrogen is required for several rotations in grass clover swards after reseeding to establish a good dense sward.

“Tillering capacity of the swards will be greatly affected if chemical nitrogen is not applied, as white clover does not begin fixing nitrogen straight away. When establishment is adequate chemical nitrogen inputs can be reduced”, he says.

Michael says establishing swards need light down to the base of the plant. Targeting a pre-grazing cover of 1,000kg/DM/ha and grazing to 4cm residuals are crucial for clover establishment, he says.

He says post emergence sprays are often applied too late, and swards are gone out of control by the time the 14 day grazing window has passed.

All paddocks on the farm had been getting 15 units of urea and sulphur for the last few rotations but the plan in the coming months is for swards with 15-20% clover to receive parlour washings or 0-7-30.

Michael says chemical nitrogen can only be reduced when clover is adequately established. In swards with less than 15% clover (or none), these paddocks will continue to receive the 15 units of N per rotation.