Spring project

Enniskillen Campus' dairy enterprise complements the High Forage, Protein Improver, and CREAM milk production systems currently being operated at Greenmount Campus.  The 70 cow-herd is managed as a spring calving herd with the aim of producing milk at a low cost by making best use of grazed grass.  This spring project  encompasses changes to the breeding policy so as to introduce replacement heifers better suited to a lower input system whilst aiming to improve milk compositional quality and the value of surplus calves.

Consensus of opinion among agricultural economists is that milk prices will fall over the next 10 years. To improve profitability at farm level there is a need to demonstrate a sustainable balance between reducing costs while increasing output (milk and stock sales), and increasing the value of that output. Some farmers are looking for a system that provides a profitable and a sustainable level of income with associated benefits of ease of management and lifestyle and therefore profit maximisation is not the sole consideration on such farms.