‘Milk recording is a vital component of any successful enterprise’
“Without doubt what has been and continues to be the driving force behind most of the farm decisions I make is membership of a progressive local discussion group,” said Mr Heavin.
“Most if not all the technologies I have adopted down through the years have been a result of seeing them successfully implemented by other like minded group members, who were willing to share their honest opinion of their worth,” he said.
He took over a mixed farm in 2001 and started out on the road to achieve his lifetime ambition of running a profitable full time dairy enterprise.
From 20 dairy cows on 14.2 ha, he has expanded to milking 93 on a 42.2 ha milking platform.
Last year, he won the FBD Young Farmer of the Year award.
In 2007, he became a Teagasc client and immediately joined the local discussion group. One of the requirements for group membership was to be milk recording.
“We had never milk recorded on our farm up to this point. Today, I feel milk recording is a vital component of any successful dairy enterprise,” said Mr Heavin.
Practically all the grass technologies he taken on in recent years are as a result of being in a strong discussion group.
Decisions around grass surpluses or deficits are based on weekly grass measuring or budgeting through the use of a grass wedge.
The spring rotation planner, the autumn 60:40 plan, on-off grazing, reseeding by minimum cultivation, are all used, due to Kevin seeing them work first hand on the farms of his fellow group members.
In breeding management, he has adopted technologies such as tail painting, DIY AI, use of a vasectomised bull with chin-ball, active bull list, use of teams of genomic bulls, and the sire advice programme.
“There is nothing like teasing out the merits or otherwise of these technologies with your group facilitator and group members,” he told the international conference organised by Teagasc, on supporting farmer innovation though best practice in advisory and extension services.
Outside of adviser and group meetings, he also gets information for day-to-day decision making from other dairy farmers whose judgement he respects, and from the farming press, his vet, Teagasc open day/farm walks, co-op milk results texts, and from the internet. “I strongly feel that there has never been more information available to farmers to assist them in decision making as there is today,” he said.
Year-to-year decisions are again greatly influenced by advice from his adviser, discussion group colleagues, and his co-op.
“I feel our most important group meeting of the year is our profit monitor meeting in January.
“Here I see exactly how the farm has performed both physically and financially over the past year, and more importantly, it highlights the areas that I need to work on if I am to increase farm profit. The yearly reports from ICBF such as my co-op performance report, herd EBI report, calving report and final fertility report are all vital tools to aid decision making. In these reports, my own farm performance is benchmarked against some of the top performers in the country, giving me a clear target to aim for.
“Important yearly decisions in relation to on-farm investments are only undertaken after consultation with my accountant.”
“When it comes to longer term strategic decisions for my farm and family, the person I depend on most is my wife Mairead.
“All major farm decisions such as large-scale infrastructural investment or new long term lease arrangements are not undertaken without both our agreement.”
“I feel it is very important for any young farmer who wants to succeed in farming, that he or she is well-motivated and have lots of ambition.
“I have no doubt that this makes the progress of the adoption of new technologies much more likely.”
