Profile: State of the art set-up at Cedarmore

John & Bryan O’Connor with Logan Syracuse Sweet VG89 state of the art set-up at cedarmore

We sat down for a chat with John O’Connor to hear all about his most impressive new set up, and venture at Cedarmore Holsteins, on the outskirts of Kanturk, Co.Cork. Where did the incentive come from to start your own Pedigree Herd?

My father started the Bawnmore Herd in the 50s. From a very young age we were involved in Showing, Sales and always got stuck in to the deepest of pedigrees. I am the youngest of 7 Children, so there was no chance I was going to be farming at home! Tell us about your younger years, was farming always the route for you in your career?

I studied Dairy & Food Science at the University College Cork. I was always very interested in the environmental element of it, particularly in waste water, this lead me to my business today. I set up my own business, Celtic Water Care in 2000, this went from strength to strength. I then started buying my own cattle between 2013 and 2014, with the view of one day having my own herd of cows. It was something a little different from the chemical business, I suppose a hobby is what you could call it! At what stage was it apparent that you were ready to go and grow your own herd into what it is today?

We started showing again in 2015/2016 and this really gave me the itch to get moving. I bought this place and we started building in April 2020 and then in March 2021, we began milking and the herd was split between Bawnmore and Cedarmore. There was just 11 months between the start of building and when we milked our first cow in the robots. An impressive timescale! We first started out milking around 55-60 cows and we are now up at around 150 cows in the system, with 120 milking all year round. Tell us why you decided a robotic system was the best system for you

With having my own business, I am away from home a lot and I do a lot of travelling. With the robots, if you are home late or get caught up with other commitments, the robots can work around you, milking through a parlour just doesnt have the same leniency. The technology of it all allows me to see things from a distance and gives me that bit more freedom. I have lots of help around the farm with Paul Murphy and Damien Burke around part time and of course, my brother Bryan who is here daily but I am never stuck if ever I need a hand.

How did the designing process go?

I actually drew all the plans for the shed myself. I got ideas from other places, we had travelled over to Holland and I picked some ideas up from there. I spent my evenings scribbling down ideas and once I had a clear picture in my head of what I wanted, I gave it to the engineers who then made it all work and put my scribbles into action. Out of all the robotic systems you could choose from, why did you choose Lely?

We had seen the Lely System working at the National Ploughing Championships and from then our mind was made up. We were so impressed with the way it all worked, we didn’t even look at another system. Lely are one of the most established company for robotic systems too so that was another push in the right direction. We have 2 Lely Astronauts, 3 scrapers (2 pushers and 1 collector), vector and an out of parlour feeder. We find the out of parlour feeder is very useful for helping the cows and heifers to get used to the idea of being in the enclosed environment of the robot before they transition after calving.

Tell us more about the Vector

It is just brilliant. Even if nobody is around you know the cows are always fed. The shed is always so silent and to me that is a sign of happy cows, no roaring. It goes around and pushes the feed in every hour and at this time it will measure what amount of ration is left and if needs be, will then go and mix more. It is able to feed 4 different diets: we have the milking, premium, dry cows and yearlings. We have 2 double-bins outside which allows us to feed the 4 different rations. We then have 4 mini-bins where we store minerals, rumen care etc. 1 full feed provides around 650kgs of TMR ration which incudes grass silage and maize. There is very little waste with the vector and it is definitely been one of the most time-saving investments. It takes the vector around 1hr in total with filling, mixing and feeding, whereas before doing it manually it would have taken 4.5hours. Of course, it is all down to good management, making sure the kitchen is filled in order for it to run smoothly.

Bawnmore Uno Helga EX90 2yr-Max, Bawnmore Mogul Joy EX93, Priestland Atwood James Roseet EX93 2E

Were there any major challenges you had to face?

Being honest, it ran a lot smoother than I ever expected. We had tried to prepare the cows as best we could before they arrived over from Bawnmore. The first week was most certainly full on and we really were working around the clock but I definitely feel the cows took to the system extremely well. The grazing system took a little more time for them to get used to. We kept everything indoors until May to make sure they were fully trained with the robot before introducing them to another something new with going out to grazing. Once we started letting them out they weren’t long in getting to know what they had to do and when it was time to come in and get milked. When indoors, the cows average around 3-3.2 milkings a day and when outdoors around 2.2-2.5 per day. We rotate the grazing A,B and C in 8 hour blocks with block C being a buffer feed indoors. All animals are in between 4pm and 10pm and are then allowed back out, this gives time for all to get milked. The vector starts at 4pm and stops at 9.30pm and then generally by 12am, the shed is completely empty.

How was production impacted on transitioning to robots?

I would definitely say it was of benefit. There was around a 10% increase from the parlour. It is great to be able to keep an eye on the herd health, solids and fertility on the system.

What are the next steps, what’s the main goal for years to come?

My main goal would be to produce as much milk as possible but to make our animals as marketable as possible, we always have cattle available for sale.

Tell us a little about your type of cow and the most prolific cow families within your herd

Most of our cow families have been built from the home herd, Bawnmore, Embryos and from buying cow families from sales in the UK. What I look for in a cow is Medium Sized, strong, functional with type and high production. The most prolific cow families here at Cedarmore include Cosmopolitan, Melody, Jessica, Apple, Red Rose, Helga, James Rose, Adeen, Dellia, Zandra, Flo, Lila-Z and Barbie, to name a few. We have 2 EX95 cows: Clongowes Sid Almeric and Grassvale Shottle Jane bought from Ivan and Louise Dawson. Both prove to be breeding well with the Sid having and EX94 Daughter and a VG88 Heifer. Shottle Jane also bred VG89-3YR Mogul and a VG88 and VG87 heifer. Another herd favourite is Shottle Helga EX94 who bred our Uno Helga EX90 2nd Calver. Our Herd consists of 55EX 89VG 7GP heifers and cows.