Focus on quality sees West Waterford milk suppliers declared Tirlán CellCheck Champion

It was a persistent focus on quality and hygiene that saw the Fitzgerald family from West Waterford declared the Tirlán CellCheck Champions for 2023 at the CellCheck Milking for Quality Awards in November at the award ceremony in the Killashee hotel.

Steven and Catriona Fitzgerald, farm with Steven’s parents Richie and Noreen, and their three children Aodhán, Donagh and Ólan in Graigue, Aglish, Co. Waterford. Theirs is very much a family farm and everyone has a part to play, with some additional labour employed, especially during the busy spring calving period.

Tirlán CEO Seán Molloy congratulated the Fitzgerald family on their ongoing success in the CellCheck Milking for Quality Awards saying “Tirlán is pleased to be involved annually with these awards and would like to congratulate all our winners for 2023. High Quality raw milk underpins the ability of Tirlán dairy products to be market leaders. Being a winner with such low SCC levels takes continuous dedication and hard work. In particular this year its excellent to be able to recognise the focus of the Fitzgerald family on milk quality and exemplary farming practices. We congratulate them on being this years’ Tirlán Champion.”

Low SCC

It is a mixed dairy and beef farm which they see firmly as the future. They finish beef on farm and have also grown the dairy enterprise from 360,000 litres in 2014 to over a million litres in 2023, with an extremely low SCC, and excellent results for TBC and Thermodurics. This is their ninth year receiving a CellCheck Award, showing how well they manage SCC year on year.  

To keep their SCC low – Steven focuses on “keeping on top of the small simple things, we milk record four times a year, using the CMT paddle on any high cows afterwards to identify problem quarters. We don’t let it drag on – we try and deal with the problem cows straight away, and we identify and cull repeat offenders quickly. We focus on hygiene all the time”.

Steven has been using a selective dry cow treatment approach for the last few years, increasing gradually and it has been working well. They are just about to do their final milk recording to ensure they have plenty of information for drying off cows.

 “Cow health and animal welfare is everything here, we watch them closely, and try and keep the cows as healthy as possible, vaccinating and having plenty of young stock coming into the herd each year. You can’t buy anything else for the farm unless the cows are going well – they are everything”.

Steven is an active member of the Teagasc Tirlán Signpost Programme which focuses on improving water quality, increasing and maintaining bio-diversity and reducing on farm costs – all with the aim of ensuring a long term sustainable family farm.  A major area for him through the programme was improving management of both fertiliser and grass year on year.

In the last few years they have invested significantly in farm infrastructure and buildings. They milk 185 High EBI black and white cows, breeding their own replacements. The  EBI average of the herd is €249 and milk solids average 555 kgs/cow, with cows averaging just over 6,000 litres/cow.

The Fitzgerald’s see the continuation of both dairy and beef on the farm as key for the future. Steven and Caitriona are always aiming to try to improve their overall work life balance so they can enjoy the balance between farming and bringing up an active young family. The Fitzgerald family have been farming for over four generations in Graigue and are looking forward to the future and continuing to develop the farm every year.

SCC programme Manager Fionnuala Malone said “we are delighted to have Steven and Catriona as this year’s CellCheck Champion – they focus on all the small hygiene details and their cows and have an extremely low SCC year on year”.

Tirlán Chairperson John Murphy congratulated the Fitzgerald family and all this years winners saying “the focus they bring to milk quality and commitment to farming in the best way for the environment is a great example of what our farming families are doing so well. Congratulations to all our suppliers who received awards this year – it really highlights the work that farmers put in day to day on farm. ” 

First Published 27 November 2024