Sligo farmer, Christopher Tuffy spoke about his farm’s performance over 2024 and how he intends to drench the cows to continue that performance into 2025.
Tuffy is leasing a 150ac farm and is milking 155 cows currently and he has a clear focus on his farm which is very much on grass and producing milk solids from grass.
The Sligo farmer was crowned the FBD Young Farmer of the Year 2022 for his good grassland management, his herd’s genetics and his herd’s performance.
The award-winning farmer is getting close to drying of the rest of his cows with a few first lactation animals already dried off and he plans on giving the cows a drench of Albex Gold to give them “the cover they need over the winter”.
Tuffy comes from a dairy farm near Enniscrone, Co. Sligo where his father milked 60 cows and after completing the dairy herd management course at Kildalton Agricultural college, Christopher decided to head to New Zealand.
When he returned from New Zealand, he knew that all he wanted to do was to go milking cows but initially his concern was that there wasn’t enough for himself and his father on the home farm.
The farm is located just outside of Sligo town, and consists of 150ac which is leased ground and has 100ac of an out-block which is owned and is for rearing calves and heifers and making silage.
When Tuffy started on the farm in 2012 with 90 cows, it consisted mainly of Christopher’s dad’s home herd and heifers and over the next few years the herd size increased due to a combination of extra heifers and bought-in stock.
System
Tuffy is milking a high economic breeding index (EBI) herd that has an average EBI of €240, and Tuffy said that he is always breeding to improve fertility and solids.
They have been crossbreeding on the farm for the last 10 years and will select bulls with a +0.2 on protein and +0.3 on fat.
The farmer will only breed off the top 50% in the herd to really maximise genetic gain on the farm.
Tuffy added that he doesn’t “pick bulls on overall economic breeding index (EBI) figure, I focus on the sub-indexes and ensure I have a good, balanced team selected”.
He has an 18-20% replacement rate as each year, 10% of the herd could be either empty or going from a voluntary cull.
The herd’s six-week calving rate is 85% and they are put straight out to grass once they calve down in the spring.
The spring-calving herd achieved an average of 485kg of milk solids (MS)/cow, with a milk protein of 3.85% and fat of 4.8%.
Drying off with a drench
The former Young Farmer of the Year aims to have first lactation animals dried off for 90 days, with everything else going for 60 days.
The cows will receive an oral drench of Albex Gold, in which Tuffy said “has been a game changer for us, as we had a heavy worm burden a few years ago”.
“We had a lot of coughing in our cattle and no matter what we were doing, we were finding it hard to get on top off and we have been using the Albex Gold now for the last two years, and we’ve had no problems,” he added.
Sligo experienced a relatively wet summer, according to Tuffy, in which he feels it is absolutely essential that the cows get an oral drench of Albex Gold.
Albex Gold is a highly effective and efficient fluke and worm single oral solution, and this treatment is in the form of a drench which is administered at the back of the throat via a drenching gun.
The drench is designed to treat mature and developing immature forms of gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, tapeworms and adult liver fluke in cattle.
Albex Gold is unique, as it contains 20% formulation of albendazole which Tuffy said “means you can give a smaller dose rate, resulting in less handling of animals, less labour at dosing times and less refilling of drenching guns”.
Albex Gold’s lower dose rate helps to reduce the likelihood of under dosing which is crucial as under dosing increases the occurrence of anthelmintic resistance.
“It works well for our system as even if you weren’t drenching at drying off , it still has a short 72-hour milk withdrawal, it kills worms and fluke in one treatment and we find the white drench is just ideal for use at drying-off,” Tuffy added.
The main reason Tuffy has decided to use Albex Gold at drying off is because “without it, the cows are not going to maximise the dry cow period”.
“The drench allows them to rest up for the winter without getting set-backs and allows them to put on condition so that they are calving down in the correct condition,” he said.
The target body condition score (BCS) at calving is 3.25 and Tuffy believes that his cows are hitting that target at calving and calving down without issues thanks to the good cover of drench they get at drying off and the level of care and feeding they get throughout the dry period.
