As farm manager of Clongowes Wood College’s dairy farm, John Trant is in charge of a 350 strong herd on 410 acres outside Clane, Co Kildare. Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with him to find out more about the operation.
Clongowes Wood College has a long and rich history since its inception in 1814 with the establishment of Ireland’s first Jesuit school and indeed preceding that it was in 1450 that the first castle was built on the lands.
A leading boarding school set in beautiful surroundings, thirty kilometres from Dublin in the heart of the Co. Kildare countryside, Clongowes Wood is a home from home for 450 boys from all over Ireland and abroad.
The college owns 410 acres of land on the outskirts of Clane and in 1976 it began to establish a commercial dairy herd. Today, the dairy farm is leased to Bill Carroll who operates a dairy enterprise with 350 cross-bred animals.
Dublin native John Trant was appointed farm manager back in February and he is responsible for the daily planning, organisation and administration of the activities on the farm. He is highly skilled in all aspects of the farm business.
Primarily, it is his responsibility to ensure that the farm, which supplies milk to Glanbia, is run efficiently and profitably.
“It’s my job to maximise grass and milk,” John outlined to Irish Tractor & Agri magazine.
John operates a 30-unit DeLaval Duovac milking system which is regarded as one of the most labour effective batch milking parlours available today.
The system delivers high throughput and efficient use of labour through its capacity to promote calm and harmonious cow traffic. Consequently, milkers can work without stress and spend as little time as necessary assisting the cows.
And they are able to spend less time in the parlour, and more time on other tasks around the farm and with the family.
The DeLaval milking system also supports shorter milking sessions. This means that cows can spend more time eating, drinking and resting, and hence achieve higher milk production.
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One of the most critical resources for any farming business is an up-to-date milking system.
Undoubtedly, your business will rely on the milking system, day in and day out, for years to come. The right system will ensure the highest levels of milk quality and productivity – factors that are crucial to success. It will also enable you to earn profits, both now and well into the future.
“We’re milking 350 cross beds in a 30-unit DeLaval Duovac. It was installed four years ago and means that one man can milk on his own in comfort. It’s comfortable for the cows as well and saves a lot of time.”
John – who hails from a small farm in Newcastle, Co Dublin – is assisted in the day-to-day running of the farm by Keith Cadwell who he described as “very experienced and very reliable”.
The working day starts at 6am in the morning but there is no such thing as a typical day in his line of work.
“This year has been very tough because of the weather,” John outlined. “Mentally and physically, it has been a very challenging year so between the snow and extremely hot weather with no rain.
“The start of the year was very tough on the cows. There were only three weeks that we were comfortable with grass. It went from very wet ground to the ground being burnt! It was one extreme to the other.”
John added: “At this stage, we’d be banking on a good back end to the year to help us make back some of the money that was spent on feed in the Spring and Summer.”
Looking ahead to the future, John revealed that there are no plans in the pipeline for expansion at Clongowes Wood’s dairy farm.
“No, there are no plans to expand. As I said, our goal now is to maximise efficiency on the farm. Growing more grass is the main thing as far as we are concerned,” he concluded.
John Trant
Farm Manager
Clongowes Wood College Farm
Mob: 083 8701517
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 5, August 2018
