This year, sights are on Jenkinstown Co Kilkenny for the IHFA Open Day
Their farm is approx. 2 miles from the Glanbia, milk processing plant near Ballyraggett, one of the largest milk processing sites in Europe.
Farm directions will be well signposted for those with a Sat Nav system, the GPS co-ordinates are 52 44’563”N 7 17’ 497”W. For those following road signs take the Durrow road (N77) for eight Km from Kilkenny city. Or if taking the M8 from the south turn off for Urlingford and travel via Freshford to Jenkinstown.
Greenvale Animal Feeds and Glanbia Agribusiness are the main sponsors. Greenvale is sponsoring the IHFA national herds competition and Glanbia the inter club stock judging awards. Other sponsors include Duggan Steel, FBD insurance, FRS Network, JFC Manufacturing, KW Forage Systems, Volac Ireland, etc.
The official opening will be performed by John Bryan, IFA President and the open day begins at 12 PM with interclub, open and Macra na Feirme Stockjudging (sponsored by the Irish Dairy Board). See full programme elsewhere. Admission/parking is free and everyone is welcome to a great day out for farm families and those involved in agribusiness.
The IHFA Open Day is always well attended by dairy industry leaders and representatives from the agri media, farm organisations, feed millers, financial institutions, machinery and trade suppliers, Teagasc, etc. There will be a fine trade display of products and services by companies servicing the dairy industry which will attract a lot of interest all day.
Tom and Maura Murphy own the award winning “Swiftsheath” Holstein herd which supplies milk all year round to manufacture Baileys Cream and other tasty dairy products. The Swiftsheath herd prefix has some interesting cultural and historical connections as the Murphy farm was once part of the nearby Swift’s Heath estate.
This was once the home of Jonathan Swift, author of the famous Gulliver’s Travels who was educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College Dublin. Swift’s Heath House is still in prime condition and catering for visitors. Noted guests have included Queen Mary, the King of Sweden, Shah of Persia, many famous artists and writers. Brigitte Lennon is the current owner and caters for day visitors and overnight guests. (Tel: 056.67653)
nMurphy Family Farm
>>Aside from Tom and Maura, the Murphy family includes Sandra, Patrick, Louise and Philip. (See family photo). Sandra is a nurse in Perth Australia and her husband Matthew O’Hanlon hails from near Asdee, Ballybunion, Co. Kerry. Patrick is a Mechanical Engineer and works for Case New Holland in England. Louise has a B.Agr.Sc degree from UCD, worked on a farm in New Zealand for six months and is currently employed as an animal nutritionist by Gain Feeds. Philip is studying Computer Science at University College Cork. Tom himself worked for 17 years in the AI industry so he is au fait with all aspects of dairy breeding and well known to milk producers all over Ireland.
This is a well equipped farm which has a computerised feed to yield, Fullwood milking parlour, a Kilkenny bulk milk tank, three Spirofeed meal bins plus a Feedall mixer wagon manufactured by a local entrepreneur, Des Condell. They also have a computerised calf feeder Urban u40 purchased from Volac so rearing first class calves on this busy farm is not a problem. .
There are two tractors on the farm-a Case New Holland T6080 and a John Deere 6330. Tom works closely with his brother Ned who ploughs and tills the land used to grow forage maize (20 acres) and whole crop wheat. (26 acres).
They also make 90 acres of pit silage and grass surplus to grazing requirements is conserved as baled silage. Ten to 15 acres of land is reseeded every year and grassland management is first class and the aim is to have quality grass available from turnout to mid November.
Gain dairy nuts are fed in the parlour and the TMR system allows them to efficiently optimise the use of home grown feeds. The cows are buffer fed with a mix of quality silage, maize, whole crop wheat and a balancer. His local Teagasc advisor is Pat Moylan and his help is much appreciated.
nNearly Fifty Years of Breeding Tradition
>>The Swiftheath herd was established in 1980 by Tom and Maura Murphy. Indeed his father’s herd “Corstown” was first registered in 1965. Tom brought some cow families from the home herd and graded up the better cows. He then purchased further cow families from prominent breeders in Britain and Ireland.
In later years embryos were purchased from top cow families in Canada and the USA. Noted families in the herd are the Dainties from the Zone herd, Princess from Tarabella, Sussie Mist from Croagh, Mia from Ballythomas, Rubies from Shopland (UK), Fran and Lulu from Canada.
Tom has served as chairman of the Carlow/Kilkenny IHFA club on two occasions. He attended the inaugural club meeting in 1966 where his brother John was elected first chairman. He is a member of the IHFA board of directors, of their panel of judges and on the organising committee for Emerald Expo 2012 which takes place at Cillin Hill, Kilkenny on Fri/Sat July 6/7 This progressive dairy farm has 65 high yielding, pedigree Holstein cows. The present herd average is 8,449 kgs (over 1850 gals) of milk at 3.54%Butterfat and 3.33%Protein with 90 % of the herd classified as VG (very good) or EX (excellent).
Their oldest cow Swiftsheath Champ Dainty (see photo) was born in May 1998, is milking well with 11 lactations and 11 healthy calves born to date (Total kgs of milk produced is around 90,000 kgs to date) a cow any breeder could be proud of.
The Murphy family are well known Holstein exhibitors at local and national shows. They featured in the top three placings of the Carlow/Kilkenny club herds competition in recent years. The 2011 Carlow/Kilkenny YMA saw the Swiftsheath herd crowned Champion and Reserve Champion calf of their show. Swiftsheath Ramos Maire went on to the YMA national finals and came 2nd in the Nov class of 2011.
Tom also runs a suckler herd and finishes all male calves to two year old beef. However depending on market prices he has sold bulls earlier for the live export trade. The beef herd is a mixture of commercial Angus, Charolais and Limousin cows. He uses a Limousin bull and has no calving problems so he is happy with his choice of bull and cows.
The breeding philosophy at Swiftsheath is to breed “Long life” cows through building cow families of the correct balance of production and type. The breeding goal is medium size cows with dairy strength, udders that last and feet and legs with the correct locomotion for grazing.
Top AI bulls with positive linear conformation from proven cow families, EBI and excellent fertility are used in the herd. Tom has built up a regular clientele who purchase his surplus heifers year on year. The top males are reared for breeding stock bulls while the remainder are finished as two year old beef.
