Tom Downey, along with his wife Ruth and their three kids run a dairy farm near Golden in south Co. Tipperary, where he milks 300 crossbred cows on a 101ha milking platform. His goal is to keep cows at grass for as many days as possible throughout the year, and it is common for him to begin turning them out as they calve from February 1, and leave them out up to November 20. Before taking over the farm in 2013, Tom spent several years working in the agricultural industry.
Upon returning to the family farm, he began transitioning the predominantly Holstein herd by crossbreeding with Jersey genetics and started expanding cow numbers. He was able to do so by leasing adjacent land, which provided the scale needed for growth. With herd expansion came a focus on simplifying the overall system. Tom prioritises breeding and grassland management, aiming to produce nearly 1kg of milk solids for every 1kg of concentrate fed. On average, each cow receives less than 500kg of concentrates annually. Tom also targets growing 15t/ha of grass and achieving 300 days at grass each year.
Herd performance
Tom supplies Tipperary Co-op and in 2024 his milk supplies average a very impressive 5% fat and 3.81% protein. This puts Tom in the top 1% for fat percentage and top 2% for protein percentage in the co-op. The herd is in the top 5% for Economic Breeding Index (EBI) nationally with a herd EBI of €252.
Tom said: “Breeding here is always considered extremely important.
“We have been using EBI since EBI became available in 2000/2001. We have always aimed to use high EBI sires over the years.”
Tom decided to join the National Genotyping Programme (NGP) when it was first launched in 2023 as he saw it as a great opportunity to get all his stock genotyped at no additional cost. He availed of free genotyping which for his herd equated to over €5,000 in the first phase of the programme.
“My experience of the National Genotyping Programme has been very positive to date,” Tom said.
“I think it’s a very constructive programme and I think genotyping animals is another tool in our toolbox to improve profitability on the farm in the future.”
Spring Calving
Tom consistently calves over 90% of his herd within the first six weeks of the calving season, reaching an impressive 92% in 2025. This means that 279 cows calved within the first 42 days – a period that brings intense activity and workload on the farm. To manage this, Tom uses a large straw-bedded shed for calving, which is highly labour-efficient.
However, challenges can arise when cows adopt the wrong calves, making it difficult to identify the correct dam. In these situations, NGP proves invaluable – it gives Tom the confidence that, even when there is uncertainty about a calf’s parentage, DNA-testing will resolve any mix-ups reliably.
Tom explained: “On numerous occasions, you arrive into the calving shed early in the morning and there could be seven or eight calves. It is quite a job to establish who’s belonging to who.
“Without a doubt the genotyping programme has corrected all issues with parentage. And there’s no doubt about it, there was corrections to be made.”
Breeding
Tom has invested significant time and effort into improving the genetics of his herd over the years, as can be seen by where the herd EBI is now. By using genomic evaluations on all stock, he has been able to refine his breeding strategy based on the individual strengths and weaknesses of each cow.
“Over the years, we steadily increased the EBI of the herd and in the last couple of years, we now selectively pick our dams specifically on EBI and mate them to high EBI bulls,” Tom said.
He strategically uses sexed semen on only his top-performing animals. The added accuracy from genomic data ensures he is selecting the very best candidates. Given the high cost of sexed semen, along with the expense of breeding and rearing replacements, targeting only the elite cows for future replacements is a top priority for Tom.
Dairy-beef
In recent years, Tom has put increased emphasis on the quality of his dairy-beef calves with the goal of producing high Commercial Beef Value (CBV) calves. He is 100% artificial insemination (AI) and uses a lot of high Dairy Beef Index (DBI) Angus sires along with Belgian Blue, Hereford and a some Wagyu as well.
“Once we have finished the required amount of dairy semen, we switch over to high DBI beef bulls,” Tom said.
The introduction of CBV adds greater transparency and information to the calves Tom sells, and provides clarity on the quality and genetic potential for the farmers buying these calves.
According to the Co. Tipperary farmer: “We the dairy farmer can guarantee what calf we are selling, the DBI of the calf, the genetic merit of the calf.”
“Beef farmers can decide based on scientific information what calves they choose to buy.
“Ultimately, I would hope that higher DBI-sired calves would be worth more in the future.”
NGP to date
Tom has now completed two full calving seasons in the genotyping programme and is very pleased with how things have gone. In 2024, according to Tom, it took a bit of time to adjust to the new routine and the additional sampling, but once he became familiar with the process, he was very satisfied with it. That year, Tom genotyped 344 calves, with an average lab turnaround time of just 3.5 days. He consistently sends off samples twice a week during the calving season, which helps him receive passports promptly and sell calves efficiently throughout the spring.
He said: “For sure, I would recommend other farmers to sign up for the scheme. The reasons being: first, it improves your breeding – you know exactly what your calves are bred by.
“Second, It improves the reliability of your EBIs.“
” And ultimately, I believe it improves the national breeding programme because we have more data, we have more accurate proofs on bulls and cows.
“Absolutely, it’s positive,” he concluded.
With over 15,000 farmers already signed up, the National Genotyping Programme is building momentum. The scheme is now open again for new applicants. Go to www.icbf.com or call HerdPlus on 023-8820452 to sign up today!