Want to know what a Queen of the Land and a FBD Best Emerging Farmer has in store for the next 12 months? I asked Louise Crowley from Limerick what's happening on her farm at the moment and any future plans for her dairy operation. Louise, although only 25 has a loyal following on Instagram and in my opinion has some of the best labour saving, record keeping and actionable tips, anyone can implement on their farm.
I’m Louise Crowley. I’m twenty five and a dairy farmer in Limerick. I’m farming with my father John and we are currently milking one hundred and forty six cows.
The plan is to be milking one hundred and seventy cows next year and two hundred cows the year after that. Two hundred cows will be our max. We are milking in a 13 unit Dairymaster parlour at the moment. We will increase this as we increase the cow numbers. We upgraded our bulk tank this year, with the purchase of an 18,300litre Dairymaster tank.
Currently we are still breeding our cows. The bulls are out with them and will be out till August 1st. We did six weeks of AI to start with, and the bulls take over then.
We are also gearing up for our second cut of silage. That should be underway in about two weeks time. We should have it done already by now, but the couple of dry weeks weather wise set all our grass back a lot. The home Farm has picked up and we could be cutting surplus grass for bales very soon also.