Dairy farmers of the year share recipe for success

DAIRY Farmers of the Year Michael and Thomas Enright from Ballynorth, Askeaton Co Limerick, started out in life with one pig, moving into dairy by adding one heifer at a time from sales of pigs.

The Enrights, who supply milk to Kerry Agribusiness, picked up the overall prize at yesterday’s National Dairy Council Quality Milk Awards at the RDS, Dublin. Broadcaster Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh presented the father-and-son team with the NDC perpetual cup and a €5,000 cheque. They also won Top Manufacturing Milk Supplier.

The runners-up and winners of the Top Liquid Milk Supplier award were Michael and Gerard Gowing from Kilminchy, Portlaoise, Co Laois, who supply milk to Glanbia. A total of 11 farmers from eight counties picked up awards, but none had a more remarkable tale to tell than the Enrights.

At 12 years of age, Michael Enright and his 13-year-old brother got one sow. Every time she had a litter, they could buy one heifer. It was a small start to dairy farming for Michael, who was just five years old when his father had a stroke. Michael’s brother went to live in Northern Ireland.

Michael recalls: “That sow bought us our first six or seven cows.” Having started out with 30 acres and one sow, 48 years later Michael and his own son, Thomas, run a farm with 238 animals, including a dairy herd of 76 cows, a beef enterprise of about 50 cattle and then weanlings, yearlings, replacements — and “a few horses”.

The Enrights now own 152 acres and rent a further 50 acres, farming 13 miles west of Limerick City and just two miles from the river Shannon. However, having built up the farm himself, Michael also pays tribute to his son, whose “expertise and dedication” have played a big part in progressing the farm in recent years and taking it that step further in terms of excellence and top quality standards.

“Thomas gives 110% to everything he takes on and it shows in the results,” says Michael.

Milk from the Enright farm is supplied to Kerry Agribusiness, where it is brought to the Charleville plant to make a range of dairy products and dairy ingredients. Milk is collected from the farm every second day and is all laboratory tested, with test results sent to the farm by text message. “This is very important because it means we can identify very quickly if anything needs attention,” says Michael.

The farm has an eight-unit herringbone milking parlour built in 1979 and a 1,100 gallon bulk tank, with an exceptional standard of cleanliness throughout.

Most of the time, Michael does the milking himself, attributing his rigorous approach to cleanliness and detail to his mother, Josephine, who he has huge respect for. “She reared eight children and managed to pass on a tremendous sense of attention to detail,” says Michael.

While Thomas could be managing the beef enterprise, Michael is happy that his son can share milking with him at particularly busy times or cover for him if he is away. Depending on weather conditions, the cows on the Enright farm are usually brought in for winter from about the third week in November but go back out on to pastures from February each year.

Michael is absolute in his belief that “there is nothing like grass for milk”. He also believes the cows are the key to his success, keeping his herd healthy, investing to constantly improve herd quality. During the winter time the cows are housed in an 80-cubicle housing unit with rubber mats which are swept down and lined twice a day.

The farm is 65 hectares, 28.23 grazing area. Some 72 cows were milked in the year 2010 and the Enrights achieve top class results — with protein at 3.43%, butterfat 3.92%, lactose of 4.76%, average TBC results of 7 and SCC of 138 against an average yield per cow of 5,746 litres (1,260 gallons).

NDC chief executive Zoe Kavanagh said that consumers in this country enjoy extremely high standards of food quality and food safety assurance. She said that despite the economic conditions of 2010, total dairy exports rose by an estimated 17% to €2.3 billion last year.

Ms Kavanagh said: “It is absolutely fitting that we should reward the continuous everyday dedication that achieves such high standards in dairy farming — within a national award programme that takes into account the broad components of excellence.”

The full list of award winners will be carried in tomorrow’s farming section.