Work-life balance a topic at Kilkenny farm walk

ABOVE: Teagasc advisors on the Inistioge farm of Tom, James and Chrissie Murphy Scroll down to read more and click NEXT to see more

A Teagasc Tirlán Signpost Farm Walk was held on the on the farm of Tom, James and Chrissie Murphy in Inistioge, recently.

Tom is dairy farming with his mother and father, James and Chrissie, near the village of Inistioge.
He is milking 190 cows and heifers are contract reared.

He has a whole farm 2.1SR LU/ha and the milking platform 2.74SR LU/ha now and rises to 4.5LU/ha in the summer when silage is closed off.

The focus of the farm walk was to demonstrate how farm profitability, a good work life balance and measures taken on to improve water quality all work hand in hand.

Co-ordinator the Teagasc Tirlán Future Farm programme, Sandra Hayes outlined the production metrics of the farm for 2023/2024.

With over 13 tonnes of grass DM/ha grown on the milking platform as an average for the last three years plus 67% of this has a clover content from 10-30% Tom has managed this with 184kgs chemical N spread in 2024.

Clover is scored twice a year on the farm in April and August.
The EBI of the herd is €229 and 532kgs of MS/cow was sold in 2023.

The labour on the farm is Tom, his father James, his mother Chrissie and they have a student from Kildalton College in the spring.

Sandra spoke of the importance of having a good work life balance. The farm is a business and you need time to plan and do paperwork which is as important as the day to day jobs like milking and grass measuring.

Tom emphasised the importance of having a good relationship with the contractor as a lot of the machinery work is out sourced.
The heifers are contract reared. They also have local help in the form of relief milker’s which is great for the summer and autumn.

The Murphy’s Teagasc dairy advisor, Colin Brennan, outlined the important link between the good soil fertility status on this farm and the grass grown per year.

Over 60% of the farms soils are optimal for P, K and pH.
To date over 14 tonnes DM/ha has been grown and an average of 13.14 tonnes DM/ha over the last three years.

When you work out what needs to be grown to feed all livestock on the farm, taking into account one tonne of meal fed per cow, the farm is growing sufficient grass along with some surplus.
The more grass grown and fed to the cows the higher the farm profitability, as extra feed does not need to be purchased into the farm. Click NEXT to continue.