The Ulster Grassland Society held its annual spring meeting last Wednesday 30 April at the farm of third generation farmer Philip Truesdale and family, Lighthouse Road, Ballyward, Co Down.
Philip graduated from Queens University Belfast and CAFRE in 2015, and returned to the family beef and sheep farm, consisting of 40 suckler cows and 120 breeding ewes.
Over the next three years, Philip, alongside his father Harold, expanded the enterprises to over 80 suckler cows and 220 ewes.
In 2018, a difficult summer with drought led to a significant hike in input costs in order to maintain livestock performance. This ultimately led to the decision to convert to dairy and a two-year process began with 60 Holstein heifers calving down in the autumn of 2020 many of which had been sourced from Grass Tec and high index Genus herds.
Split farm
The farm comprises 85ha (210 acres) split across 11 plots of land ranging from 1ha (2ac) to 20ha (50ac) in size, with the main milking platform at the home farm consisting of 12ha (30ac). Grazing conditions and grass growth can be difficult due to an average rainfall of 750mm (29.5inches) with an altitude of 600ft on an exposed site.
A 12-point herringbone parlour was installed in autumn 2020, with the potential to increase to a 16-point to allow for future herd expansion. Philip described his target for an ideal dairy cow in the system is to produce an average milk yield of 8,000l, consuming 2t of meal on an annual basis.
The current milking herd comprises 95 autumn-calving Holstein cows, with last years’ herd performance averaging 9,650l/cow at 4.10% butterfat and 3.44% protein, from 3.5t concentrate fed per cow, with a feed rate of 0.36kg/l.
Cows have been grazing by day from the end of March 2025 with Philip’s main focus on avoiding excessive pre-grazing covers, aiming for 3,000kg dry matter per hectare (DM/ha).
All cows are grouped together and typically graze 0.4ha (1ac) area during the day, while being housed at night and fed to yield, with heifers receiving an additional 2kg/head over base.
Cows are currently half way through the second grazing rotation on the platform, with the herd averaging 32l of milk per day at a feed rate of 0.38kg/l.
Reseeding across the grazing platform
As the farm moved towards the current dairying enterprise, 120 acres has been reseeded to date.
However, given the prevalence of stones, reseeding is mainly completed by min-till, with discs used to create the seed bed.
Soil-sampling is done across the farm every two years, with only 5% (2.4ha) of the land area currently requiring lime to correct soil pH.
Philip outlined that the main grass growth for the farm occurs from April to June, with grass growth declining from July onwards. Philip aims to dry off the majority of the herd to coincide with this, reducing the demand for grazed grass on the farm at this time.
When reseeding, he has used a mixture of intermediate diploid and late tetraploid perennial ryegrass varieties, such as AberZeus, AberGain and AberGreen, in order to increase sward density and improve grass utiltisation with the grazing herd.
Reseeded areas across the farm have been recorded as achieving up to 18t DM/ha annually, with older leys on the farm more likely to achieve around 10 t/ha.
Philip has made the decision not to incorporate clover into swards due to the farm’s high altitude.
Silage
The farm operated a three-cut system in 2024 with silage cut early May, mid-June and mid-August. The aim is to move towards a four-cut system in 2025.
At the time of the event last Wednesday, first-cut silage had commenced on the farm.
Other livestock on the Truesdale farm
Sheep numbers in 2025 are down on what existed in 2018, although 50 ewes are still maintained on the farm.
Scanning percentages are consistently over 200%, which shows the successful grassland management and grass quality the ewe flock have access to. Philip aims to cull ewes producing triplets and quadruplets in an effort to reduce labour associated with lambing time. As well as the dairy and sheep enterprises, he rears 25 Aberdeen Angus calves through to finishing.
Attention to detail with animal health
Philip invested in a SenseHub behaviour monitoring system to initially monitor cow health and rumination, in order to ensure the cow diet being fed was sufficient and not causing any digestive upsets.
However, the heat detection element of this system has proved very beneficial and has “taken three weeks off the calving interval”, said Philip. The herd average calving interval is now 365 days.
Philip explained to the group he no longer spends time heat-detecting cows daily throughout the breeding season and solely uses the information provided from the system, which goes directly to his mobile device.
Seventy per cent of the cows were cycling in the herd by 60 days post-calving, with the family being able to easily identify cows not showing signs of heat for pre-breeding checks.
The farm is using sexed semen across the milking herd, with all cows AI’d for a five-week period, with an Aberdeen Angus bull used to sweep.
Philip has a well-defined selection criteria when it comes to AI breeding sires, selecting bulls with positive figures for milk fat and protein. He aims to produce a functional cow with particular emphasis on cow feet and udder type especially in relation to teat size and placement – always with a focus on keeping his cows ‘future proofed’ for robotic milking.
There is significant attention to detail in relation to herd health, with a full programme of vaccination used in the herd covering IBR, leptospirosis and BVD. Philip is keen to reduce the level of antibiotic usage in the herd. He extends the dry cow period for those with high cell counts up to 80 days and uses selective dry cow therapy based on milk recording data.
Care is also taken around replacement heifer selection with any that had health incidences, such as pneumonia early in life, not being retained due to the linkage with early life disease and reduction in lifetime milk performance.
This year the farm is moving away from using lungworm vaccinations due to its rising cost.
The Truesdale herd comprises 95 autumn-calving cows.
Workload
One of the objectives of the farm is to reduce workload in order to spend time with a young family and with a potential herd expansion on the horizon in the next five to 10 years, farm layout is at the centre of all decision making.
Philip’s attention to detail is apparent with the development of the farm buildings, which are designed in such a way to accommodate the installation of milking robots in the future. There is a flexibility throughout many of the cattle houses to allow this change of use, with portable cubicles installed and iron cladding to ground level instead of walls and permanent fixtures.
The Ulster Grassland Society held its annual spring meeting last Wednesday 30 April at the farm of third generation farmer Philip Truesdale and family, Lighthouse Road, Ballyward, Co Down.
Philip graduated from Queens University Belfast and CAFRE in 2015, and returned to the family beef and sheep farm, consisting of 40 suckler cows and 120 breeding ewes.
Over the next three years, Philip, alongside his father Harold, expanded the enterprises to over 80 suckler cows and 220 ewes.
In 2018, a difficult summer with drought led to a significant hike in input costs in order to maintain livestock performance. This ultimately led to the decision to convert to dairy and a two-year process began with 60 Holstein heifers calving down in the autumn of 2020 many of which had been sourced from Grass Tec and high index Genus herds.
Split farm
The farm comprises 85ha (210 acres) split across 11 plots of land ranging from 1ha (2ac) to 20ha (50ac) in size, with the main milking platform at the home farm consisting of 12ha (30ac). Grazing conditions and grass growth can be difficult due to an average rainfall of 750mm (29.5inches) with an altitude of 600ft on an exposed site.
A 12-point herringbone parlour was installed in autumn 2020, with the potential to increase to a 16-point to allow for future herd expansion. Philip described his target for an ideal dairy cow in the system is to produce an average milk yield of 8,000l, consuming 2t of meal on an annual basis.
The current milking herd comprises 95 autumn-calving Holstein cows, with last years’ herd performance averaging 9,650l/cow at 4.10% butterfat and 3.44% protein, from 3.5t concentrate fed per cow, with a feed rate of 0.36kg/l.
Cows have been grazing by day from the end of March 2025 with Philip’s main focus on avoiding excessive pre-grazing covers, aiming for 3,000kg dry matter per hectare (DM/ha).
All cows are grouped together and typically graze 0.4ha (1ac) area during the day, while being housed at night and fed to yield, with heifers receiving an additional 2kg/head over base.
Cows are currently half way through the second grazing rotation on the platform, with the herd averaging 32l of milk per day at a feed rate of 0.38kg/l.
Reseeding across the grazing platform
As the farm moved towards the current dairying enterprise, 120 acres has been reseeded to date.
However, given the prevalence of stones, reseeding is mainly completed by min-till, with discs used to create the seed bed.
Soil-sampling is done across the farm every two years, with only 5% (2.4ha) of the land area currently requiring lime to correct soil pH.
Philip outlined that the main grass growth for the farm occurs from April to June, with grass growth declining from July onwards. Philip aims to dry off the majority of the herd to coincide with this, reducing the demand for grazed grass on the farm at this time.
When reseeding, he has used a mixture of intermediate diploid and late tetraploid perennial ryegrass varieties, such as AberZeus, AberGain and AberGreen, in order to increase sward density and improve grass utiltisation with the grazing herd.
Reseeded areas across the farm have been recorded as achieving up to 18t DM/ha annually, with older leys on the farm more likely to achieve around 10 t/ha.
Philip has made the decision not to incorporate clover into swards due to the farm’s high altitude.
Silage
The farm operated a three-cut system in 2024 with silage cut early May, mid-June and mid-August. The aim is to move towards a four-cut system in 2025.
At the time of the event last Wednesday, first-cut silage had commenced on the farm.
Other livestock on the Truesdale farm
Sheep numbers in 2025 are down on what existed in 2018, although 50 ewes are still maintained on the farm.
Scanning percentages are consistently over 200%, which shows the successful grassland management and grass quality the ewe flock have access to. Philip aims to cull ewes producing triplets and quadruplets in an effort to reduce labour associated with lambing time. As well as the dairy and sheep enterprises, he rears 25 Aberdeen Angus calves through to finishing.
Attention to detail with animal health
Philip invested in a SenseHub behaviour monitoring system to initially monitor cow health and rumination, in order to ensure the cow diet being fed was sufficient and not causing any digestive upsets.
However, the heat detection element of this system has proved very beneficial and has “taken three weeks off the calving interval”, said Philip. The herd average calving interval is now 365 days.
Philip explained to the group he no longer spends time heat-detecting cows daily throughout the breeding season and solely uses the information provided from the system, which goes directly to his mobile device.
Seventy per cent of the cows were cycling in the herd by 60 days post-calving, with the family being able to easily identify cows not showing signs of heat for pre-breeding checks.
The farm is using sexed semen across the milking herd, with all cows AI’d for a five-week period, with an Aberdeen Angus bull used to sweep.
Philip has a well-defined selection criteria when it comes to AI breeding sires, selecting bulls with positive figures for milk fat and protein. He aims to produce a functional cow with particular emphasis on cow feet and udder type especially in relation to teat size and placement – always with a focus on keeping his cows ‘future proofed’ for robotic milking.
There is significant attention to detail in relation to herd health, with a full programme of vaccination used in the herd covering IBR, leptospirosis and BVD. Philip is keen to reduce the level of antibiotic usage in the herd. He extends the dry cow period for those with high cell counts up to 80 days and uses selective dry cow therapy based on milk recording data.
Care is also taken around replacement heifer selection with any that had health incidences, such as pneumonia early in life, not being retained due to the linkage with early life disease and reduction in lifetime milk performance.
This year the farm is moving away from using lungworm vaccinations due to its rising cost.
The Truesdale herd comprises 95 autumn-calving cows.
Workload
One of the objectives of the farm is to reduce workload in order to spend time with a young family and with a potential herd expansion on the horizon in the next five to 10 years, farm layout is at the centre of all decision making.
Philip’s attention to detail is apparent with the development of the farm buildings, which are designed in such a way to accommodate the installation of milking robots in the future. There is a flexibility throughout many of the cattle houses to allow this change of use, with portable cubicles installed and iron cladding to ground level instead of walls and permanent fixtures.
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