Paula Hynes: When a shot of espresso is all you need
Jones Haniko Espresso
It has been a week full of positives here, thankfully. We had our Bord Bia audit at the start of the week, and I always find it a great excuse to check the little things on the farm, like opening the first aid kit to ensure it is fully stocked.
I often wonder if the non-farming community realises that Bord Bia audits every Irish dairy farm every 12 to 18 months, and the process really does go into great detail.
Records are checked to ensure medicines are allocated to livestock, recorded, and administered correctly. Any medicine stocks on the farm are checked to ensure they are up to date.
It is a busy time ensuring that everything is up to date on the farm and a long morning going through everything with the auditor. It is one of the reasons why Ireland has world-renowned traceability for the food we produce. Thankfully, we passed with flying colours, so our farm is Bord Bia-approved for another year.
On the grass front, sunshine and showers have really boosted grass growth so we have mowed some more surplus paddocks for silage bales in an effort to try and keep quality grass in front of the cows as they really have been milking well.
The herd has been averaging 27.7L at 4.12% fat and 3.59% protein. We also got our latest milk recording results back, and thankfully, all the show cows' somatic cell counts came back really low, so it is one less thing to worry about.
The herd SCC has been really good this year. Last winter, we used Fatroseal teat sealers from Duggan Veterinary and found they gave an exceptionally good seal to the cows' teats during the dry period.
Acclaim has produced nearly 11,000L so far in her first lactation, which is a fair achievement for a two-year-old. Champ is really in cruise control now, producing 47L daily, and she has really filled up.
We have two Jersey milkers on show diets now, with Kasey producing 32L a day, and while Peanut is still a little fresh, she is hitting 40L a day.
The trick now is to try to keep them milking at peak for as long as possible, especially now that the European dairy markets have lifted. Butter is trading at €6,700/t, cheddar is increasing by around €300/t, and SMP is increasing. These increases have also been reflected in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, which saw an increase of 3.3%.
Hopefully, Irish dairy processors will pass on these increases as fast as possible because farmers could really do with a financial boost in a year where they are doing all they can to make ends meet.
As a busy run of shows comes up for us, all the jersey calves are walking well and have had pre-clips. We acquired a new calf early in the spring, she is a January born calf named Jones Haniko Espresso and arrived home to us in April.
She really is a little superstar, but it is no surprise given her pedigree: She was sired by Haniko, her dam is a first lactation sired by Chief, and her grand dam is none other than Sunibelle Dempsey ESPRIT EX96.
Espresso is bred by Gary and Izzy Jones in Wexford. Gary told us she has all the characteristics of her Granddam, loves her grub, and, when she was on milk, really would blow the milk bucket out of your hand.
When it comes to work, though, she is so relaxed; we halter-trained her in two days, and she just wanted to walk, she loves her baths, and when we pre-clipped her, it was as if she had been clipped ten times before.
Gary told me ESPRIT has always been a pleasure to work with as well. "She is a true modern-day cow, a medium-sized cow that gets on with the job of making lots of milk," he told me.
He knows her well, having shown her throughout her star-studded career. Espresso is developing at a phenomenal pace, and we’re looking forward to getting her out on the show circuit. She will have a busy few months ahead.
It has always been a focus of ours to secure top-class cow families, so she will be a nice fit alongside Acclaim, Twizzle, JayZ, Papoose and the cow families we have bred ourselves, such as Alanna, Bordica and Blossom.
With all those positives, I thought the week couldn’t get much better until Georgie confirmed that she would be featured in her own TV documentary this summer.
I can’t give away any details at the moment, but it is a really big project for her and such an amazing opportunity for a 10-year-old girl and an opportunity that arose for her when a producer saw her on Raised By The Village.
We had planned a slightly quieter summer this year, but now it seems it will be as hectic as last year with Becky's diary now filled up for July with sales and clipping work before she heads to the UK to show and prepare for the ABAB qualifier.
This weekend alone, we have a Saturday morning photo shoot before Georgie's producer arrives on the farm for an afternoon meeting; maybe it's fitting we have a calf named Espresso on the farm because I’ll also need that little shot of caffeine at times to keep my eyes open.
