An Offaly dairy farm extends grazing with Lely Grazeway
Aisling Heavey farms with her father, Bernard, on a 400-acre mixed holding near Tullamore in County Offaly. Alongside the dairy herd, the family finishes about 110 homebred beef animals. The 133 spring-calving cows supply Lakeland Dairies.
In 2020, the Heaveys built a new dairy unit and installed two Lely A5 Astronaut milking robots, replacing a conventional parlour that had been in use for ten years. Cow numbers rose from 115 to 130 during the same period. About 30 acres of the original grazing area could be reached only by crossing a public road. Because an underpass was considered too expensive, the family reduced the usable grazing platform to 85 acres.
The farm now uses an ABC grazing arrangement. Cows are assigned to one of three blocks according to the time of day, while the Lely Grazeway selection gate determines whether an animal returns to the shed or moves to a designated paddock. At night, cows are sent to the area nearest the milking unit. Block A becomes available at 2am, Block B at 10am and Block C at 6pm. About one-fifth of the daily feed allocation is provided overnight, with the balance divided between the two daytime blocks.
The three-block design is intended to support milking visits up to three times a day, although individual cows do not necessarily reach every block within 24 hours. Visits vary with milk yield and feed intake. Grainne Murray, a farm-management support specialist at Lely Mullingar, said the arrangement was used to increase intake, separate cows and limit bunching, while improving movement through the system and robot utilisation.
The Heaveys said the robots changed when cows could graze. Bernard reported that the herd was outside in February, whereas this had not been possible with the parlour. Aisling said the cows had previously stayed indoors until St Patrick’s Day and were housed earlier in autumn. Bernard also said that free movement had reduced poaching around gateways and improved ground conditions; in heavy rain, cows could return indoors when they chose.
Milking had previously taken about six hours each day. After calving and breeding, the routine consists mainly of moving two grazing wires in the morning and one in the evening, changing filter socks, washing the robots and checking information in Lely Horizon. The family said the cows were calmer and moved in small groups rather than as a single herd. When the robots were introduced, 30 cows were trained initially because the rest had been dried off; the following spring, newly calved cows went directly to the robots. The family credited Lely Mullingar with providing support during the transition.
