An international project using milk recording data, farmer input and community engagement to help small and medium-sized dairy farms build resilience and strengthen their connection with wider society.
The HoliCow project was established in response to a decline in the number of small and medium-sized dairy farms across the project regions. Among the pressures facing these farms are barriers to technology adoption and negative public perceptions of farming.
The investment and learning time required to adopt new technologies can place additional pressure on farms, potentially affecting their economic performance and resilience. Negative perceptions of farming can also create additional challenges for farmers and shape how wider society views the sector.
HoliCow aims to help small and medium-sized dairy farms remain viable and resilient by making better use of data from Milk Recording Organisations (MROs), while also helping to strengthen the connection between farmers and wider society.
Part of the Interreg NWE programme and co-financed by the Walloon Region, HoliCow involves 12 partners across six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Ireland.
The project will deliver its objectives through a three-year action plan consisting of three main phases.
Phase 1: Developing a Herd Assessment Tool
The first phase will develop an easy-to-use tool that will allow farmers to assess key areas of herd performance at a glance, including heat stress, fertility, production, transformation, welfare and environmental impact.
The tool will use MRO data alongside information gathered through previous projects, including HappyMoo. Direct feedback from users will also contribute to the development of a community database.
Phase 2: Refining the Tool with Farmers
The second phase will focus on developing and refining the tool in collaboration with dairy farmers. Options being explored include an app and an intuitive community database.
Pilot farms will play an important role in this phase, helping to ensure that the tools developed through HoliCow are practical, accessible and suited to farmers’ needs.
In Ireland, three pilot herds are participating in HoliCow alongside ICBF and the project’s European partners, providing an Irish contribution to the development and testing of the project tools.
- Ricki Fitzgerald – Farm Manager
- 250 – cow – Spring calving herd
- Holstein Friesian and Jersey cross
- Weekly milk recording
- Teagasc leases the farm and uses it to undertake some of its core dairy production research
- The farm is owned by Dairygold Co-Operative Society Limited
- Eoin McCormack – Farm Manager
- 180-cow herd – Spring calving herd
- Holstein Friesian and Jersey cross
- Weekly milk recording
- Clonakilty Ag College farm is used for educational and research purposes
- The herd has an average grazing season of 300 days
- William Hennessy – Farm Manager & Aisling Floyd, Teagasc Walsh Scholar Researcher
- 130 cows – Spring calving herd
- Holstein Friesian and Jersey cross
- Weekly milk recording
- The farm’s activities consistently involve a range of research trials, focusing on grass sward types, clover and multi-species swards, including breeding and crossbreeding of cattle.
Phase 3: Community Engagement
The final phase will focus on strengthening the relationship between dairy farms and their local communities.
This will include farmer-citizen dialogue, a wider communications campaign and activities such as open farm days, helping to create greater understanding of modern dairy farming and the work taking place on participating farms.