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James Croke is milking 275 cows between Ballingarry and Mullinahone in Co. Tipperary, where his Jersey cross cows are driving the whole system.
Croke is farming on a whole farm area of 365ac, where he owns 70ac and has the rest of farm leased through three different blocks.
The milking platform is 270ac, which means the milking platform is stocked at just under 2.5 cows/ha and leaves it comfortable for Croke to drive on production.
The spring-calving system is very much a grass-based one, as Croke grows about 13t/grass and focuses on getting cows out to grass as early as possible to achieve a long grazing season with as little supplementation as possible.
Production
Generally, Croke aims to feed 700-800kg of meal, however, this year, he fed 1.1t due to the difficult grass growing conditions with a very dry farm.
Croke has been using all LIC genetics for the past 12 years and as a result he has transformed from a “middle of the road Friesian herd” into the efficient, profitable herd it is today, achieving all key performance indicators (KPIs).
When he set out using LIC genetics over 10 years ago, the goal was simple – to achieve 500kg/milk solids (MS) from a cow with a bodyweight of 500-520kg, achieving 5% fat and 4% protein.
Croke’s co-op performance report shows how well he is doing in terms of production and fertility and the report which is from January to October 2024 shows that he is well on the way to exceed 500kg/MS/cow and is as follows:
What is also quite evident form his co-op performance report, is that he is very close to achieving his target of 5% fat and 4% protein, and this quality milk production is evident through the average price received for 2024 up to October.
Croke’s selective breeding and use of sexed semen on the selected best performers while putting beef straws to the rest has made it easy for him to excel his herd’s performance and to sell his calves in the mart.
The Tipperary man has exclusively used LIC Kiwi-cross bulls for the last five years and every cow in the herd is somewhere between 20-60% Jersey and Croke’s objective is to maintain this level of Jersey in the herd.
Breeding
Breeding starts on May 11 where the best 40 cows will be selected for sexed semen and the heifers will be checked by the vet to make sure they are 100%, and if so, they will receive a sexed straw also.
All sexed semen will be used on the first day of the breeding season, as the 40 cows and replacement heifers will be put on a synchronisation programme.
If any of these cows or heifers repeat, they will get a conventional dairy straw and if they come repeating again, they will get a beef straw.
Croke aims to have about 65-70 replacement heifers each year as he thrives for genetic gain year-on-year.
When selecting cows to breed from, the farmer picks his best performing cows based on milk recordings, cows that are calving early and cows that have good udders and feet.
Croke wants cows with lots of capacity as the system he operates revolves around having a herd of cows that can utilise grass efficiently.
Croke said that he needs “a small hardy cow that can do long walks and is able to eat grass and be efficient with it by turning it into solids.”
He does not look at the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) when selecting bulls and picks his bulls based on their breeding worth (BW) figures in New Zealand.
He tries to stick to a small team of bulls (maximum of four) that are all daughter proven bulls in New Zealand as he finds this approach keeps the system very simple.
The bulls have high reliability and produce a crop of calves each year that Croke feels are guaranteed to perform in his herd.
Bulls used in 2024 were as follows:
- Gordons Flash Gordon JEX233;
- Diggs Hardcopy JEX152;
- Julian Multiplier JEX260;
- Werders Premonition JEX14.
All cows who don’t get a dairy straw will get a high quality, short gestation and easy calving beef straw.
The Shrimptons Hill Hereford HE7317 was the only beef bull used in 2024 and over 200 cows will calf down to this bull in spring 2025.
Croke uses this bull as they have an incredibly short gestation coming up to 10 days early and are easy calving. The calves from his crossbred herd also demonstrate good terminal traits and sell easily at Thurles Mart.