The dairy boom post quota saw a share of farmers who were confined on their own dairy platform to seek second or even third blocks to operate on. A lot of suitable tillage and drystock farms were converted, so finding a suitable block, especially in the West of Ireland, is a challenge now.
Chris Tuffy and his father TJ are well known Sligo dairy farmers, with Chris having won the FBD/Macra Young Farmer of the Year competition and being part of the West Awake discussion group.
The pair took on a 15-year lease of the old Doonally AI station outside Sligo town when Chris was only in his early 20s and fresh from agricultural college, changing the cow type from a high yielding black and white type to smaller framed crossbred cows.
Pre-Doonally, the fragmented block in Enniscrone supported around 60 cows, but involved a lot of walking on roads and didn’t have scope for Chris to come home and draw a second wage from.
Roughly 10 years later, the Tuffys have taken on a second milking block just outside the village of Dromore West on a long-term lease.
300-gallon water troughs were placed throughout the farm to service cow needs, filled by a 32mm pipe.
The block runs right up to the Atlantic seas, with Donegal and Fermanagh viewable from it’s elevation on a dry day, with just under 100 grazeable acres available.
The preliminary plan was to run Doonally as a standalone unit, with cows wintering on cubicles, calving down and being milked on site.
However, the Dromore West farm proves a little more challenging, with no wintering facilities available. The plan going forward is to winter and calve down cows on the original home block in Enniscrone and milk them there initially through the old milking parlour.
When numbers are sufficient and weather dry enough, cows will then be transported the 20 minutes up the coast to the Dromore West block.
Chris had looked at several blocks through the years for a potential additional milking platform. This blockat Dromore West was well farmed previously, though like many drystock farms, infrastructure for grazing wasn’t where it needed to be for maximising grass growth and utilisation.
Roads were blinded off and rolled, though the long term plan is to use astroturf for optimum cow comfort.
2024 saw a major upgrade on the facilities on farm. A second hand milking parlour and collecting yard were built (which will feature in the coming weeks on the Farm Building pages), along with the mapping out and fencing of paddocks, installation of roads and the upgrading of the water system.
The farm was set in various sizes of paddocks and fields pre 2024. Grasstec were employed to map out the farm and draw up a paddock and roadway system to suit, though due to the topography of the farm, with some seriously steep hills, some adjustments had to be made.
Paddocks are now mainly between 4-5 acres in size, which should suit 110 cows to graze in a 36-hour block, with further subdivision through temporary reels where required.
Frequent gap handles along the roads give multiple access points to paddocks.
With the current herd on the farm consisting mainly of first calving heifers who do not have the same appetite as mature cows, some adjustment around allocation has had to be made, though maturing of the herd will rectify this.
Chris completed most of the fencing himself. High tensile single strand wire was used along paddock boundaries, with mild wire used at gap handles.
Chris has ample handles in place for multiple access points to paddocks for grazing at the shoulders of the year. Gap handles are spring tensioned. Boundary fences were also done where necessary.
Water supply had to be completely redone to accommodate the large demand that 110 cows would have on it.
A 40mm pipe runs in a circle throughout the boundary of the farm in a looped system, with a 32mm (1 ¼’’) pipe then teed off for feeding the water troughs.
This was rolled out from the connection, where Chris then used a mole plough to bury the pipe underground to prevent damage from machinery.
High tensile single strand wire was used throughout. Yearling heifers have been brought on to the block raise demand.
Threee-hundred gallon water troughs were used throughout, with a mix of top and bottom fill troughs used, and Philmac fittings. In the smaller paddocks, the troughs are shared between two paddocks, while the larger paddocks have a trough located in the centre.
Possibly one of the most impressive upgrades of the farm are the network of roadways. As can be seen from the pictures, there is a thin layer of top soil with limestone underneath.
To access the paddocks closest to the coastline, a roadway had to be cut through the side of a hill.
Two diggers fitted with rock breakers were dispensed to break out the layered sheets of limestone, which was then crushed on site using a front bucket attachment on a front loader and used for the ribbon of roads spread throughout the farm.
The farm runs right down to the coastline and is high in elevation.
The roadways were then binded off using material purchased in from a quarry and sealed with a vibrating roller. Even though the surface is in excellent order for cows walking on it, the long-term plan is to install Astroturf strips for optimum cow comfort.
The dairy boom post quota saw a share of farmers who were confined on their own dairy platform to seek second or even third blocks to operate on. A lot of suitable tillage and drystock farms were converted, so finding a suitable block, especially in the West of Ireland, is a challenge now.
Chris Tuffy and his father TJ are well known Sligo dairy farmers, with Chris having won the FBD/Macra Young Farmer of the Year competition and being part of the West Awake discussion group.
The pair took on a 15-year lease of the old Doonally AI station outside Sligo town when Chris was only in his early 20s and fresh from agricultural college, changing the cow type from a high yielding black and white type to smaller framed crossbred cows.
Pre-Doonally, the fragmented block in Enniscrone supported around 60 cows, but involved a lot of walking on roads and didn’t have scope for Chris to come home and draw a second wage from.
Roughly 10 years later, the Tuffys have taken on a second milking block just outside the village of Dromore West on a long-term lease.
300-gallon water troughs were placed throughout the farm to service cow needs, filled by a 32mm pipe.
The block runs right up to the Atlantic seas, with Donegal and Fermanagh viewable from it’s elevation on a dry day, with just under 100 grazeable acres available.
The preliminary plan was to run Doonally as a standalone unit, with cows wintering on cubicles, calving down and being milked on site.
However, the Dromore West farm proves a little more challenging, with no wintering facilities available. The plan going forward is to winter and calve down cows on the original home block in Enniscrone and milk them there initially through the old milking parlour.
When numbers are sufficient and weather dry enough, cows will then be transported the 20 minutes up the coast to the Dromore West block.
Chris had looked at several blocks through the years for a potential additional milking platform. This blockat Dromore West was well farmed previously, though like many drystock farms, infrastructure for grazing wasn’t where it needed to be for maximising grass growth and utilisation.
Roads were blinded off and rolled, though the long term plan is to use astroturf for optimum cow comfort.
2024 saw a major upgrade on the facilities on farm. A second hand milking parlour and collecting yard were built (which will feature in the coming weeks on the Farm Building pages), along with the mapping out and fencing of paddocks, installation of roads and the upgrading of the water system.
The farm was set in various sizes of paddocks and fields pre 2024. Grasstec were employed to map out the farm and draw up a paddock and roadway system to suit, though due to the topography of the farm, with some seriously steep hills, some adjustments had to be made.
Paddocks are now mainly between 4-5 acres in size, which should suit 110 cows to graze in a 36-hour block, with further subdivision through temporary reels where required.
Frequent gap handles along the roads give multiple access points to paddocks.
With the current herd on the farm consisting mainly of first calving heifers who do not have the same appetite as mature cows, some adjustment around allocation has had to be made, though maturing of the herd will rectify this.
Chris completed most of the fencing himself. High tensile single strand wire was used along paddock boundaries, with mild wire used at gap handles.
Chris has ample handles in place for multiple access points to paddocks for grazing at the shoulders of the year. Gap handles are spring tensioned. Boundary fences were also done where necessary.
Water supply had to be completely redone to accommodate the large demand that 110 cows would have on it.
A 40mm pipe runs in a circle throughout the boundary of the farm in a looped system, with a 32mm (1 ¼’’) pipe then teed off for feeding the water troughs.
This was rolled out from the connection, where Chris then used a mole plough to bury the pipe underground to prevent damage from machinery.
High tensile single strand wire was used throughout. Yearling heifers have been brought on to the block raise demand.
Threee-hundred gallon water troughs were used throughout, with a mix of top and bottom fill troughs used, and Philmac fittings. In the smaller paddocks, the troughs are shared between two paddocks, while the larger paddocks have a trough located in the centre.
Possibly one of the most impressive upgrades of the farm are the network of roadways. As can be seen from the pictures, there is a thin layer of top soil with limestone underneath.
To access the paddocks closest to the coastline, a roadway had to be cut through the side of a hill.
Two diggers fitted with rock breakers were dispensed to break out the layered sheets of limestone, which was then crushed on site using a front bucket attachment on a front loader and used for the ribbon of roads spread throughout the farm.
The farm runs right down to the coastline and is high in elevation.
The roadways were then binded off using material purchased in from a quarry and sealed with a vibrating roller. Even though the surface is in excellent order for cows walking on it, the long-term plan is to install Astroturf strips for optimum cow comfort.
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