William Conlon
@WilliamConlon
Followers
4,294
Following
1,141
Media
980
Statuses
3,023
Farmyard Design and Project Management with Lely Center Mullingar and Lely Center Kilkenny. An always optimistic Mayo supporter! william.conlon07 @gmail .com
Mayo Ireland
Joined August 2011
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
LA ROCHE MELA B3 x FOURTH
• 156214 Tweets
HAPPY 3RD BINIVERSARY
• 90432 Tweets
白血球さん
• 33435 Tweets
エアコン
• 32506 Tweets
#GiveMeThat1stWin
• 29489 Tweets
#サッカー日本代表
• 19197 Tweets
ライエモ
• 16538 Tweets
#鷹嶺ルイ生誕バンドLIVE
• 14912 Tweets
細胞実写化
• 14555 Tweets
人身事故
• 12187 Tweets
刀剣男士
• 12052 Tweets
Few bits left to tidy up and doors to be fitted but enough done to see cattle go into it! Should help to take the pressure off anyway. Young farmer grant a massive help, would be very hard to do without it that's for sure.
23
4
361
Has to be one of the most impressive set-ups that I have seen! Out last week at this recently completed four robot job in Co Cavan, 230 cubicles in the main section of the shed with nearly 20 more in the separation area behind the robots. Started milking in the unit this week.
18
27
286
Final piece with the Farmers Journal today. Many thanks to everyone who let me on to their farm or engaged with articles over the past 3 years! Brilliant experience with a great bunch of people, on to the next chapter now and excited to be joining the team in Lely Mullingar!
22
4
232
Opening up a drain that had been closed up for at least 25 years, should help with the wet corner of the field anyway!
14
4
223
Delighted to graduate from University of Limerick with a Masters in Project and Programme Management. Busy couple of years trying to balance everything but great to have completed it.
12
0
214
No drought in mayo, good job it was the father and not me.
10
2
207
Handy to get a few made all the same, aul lads love small square bales.
10
4
196
Some amount of work has gone into this land since we got it two years ago but great satisfaction in seeing it all finally come together.
4
0
195
New calf shed nearing completion on farm today too, big investment but a fine facility. Individual calf pens, then onto automatic feeder, straw bedded pens for reared calves and then onto cubicles for weanlings.
16
7
190
Someone on here was talking about dividing gates during the week and came across two different options today while looking at a shed for next week's
@farmersjournal
, simple sliding option and a guillotine gate. See next week's paper for a really impressive setup!
15
17
180
CALF SHED THREAD: always massive interest in calf shed design so I have pulled together most of the calf sheds that I have featured over the past few years for anyone thinking of increasing housing! Most articles will include costs, videos and plans of the shed!
@farmersjournal
12
35
175
A massive 635 cubicles under the one roof, has to be one of the biggest cubicle sheds in the country! Rope scrapers run every 30 minutes - some of the cleanest passageways I've seen, check out this week's
@farmersjournal
for more details
12
28
168
A massive thanks to
@mellerina
for having me down last week to look at her impressive new cubicle shed - all the details in this week's
@farmersjournal
or online Thursday
6
6
160
Down at a new 20-unit rapid exit parlour for a 250 cow herd in Tipperary today, first time seeing one in action, some really nice aspects of the overall design! See next week's
@farmersjournal
for all the details.
4
16
159
250 bales made off 20 acres, €14.50 to mow, bale and wrap them and about €29/bale all in when slurry and fertiliser included. Up from about €21/bale last year, cut the same time as last year but a heavier crop this year.
10
5
159
Three methods of spreading slurry examined, grass cut and spread on 23rd April. Grass covers measured this week -1200kg for splash plate section, 2100kg for tailing hose and 2200kg for trailing shoe, nearly doubled growth with different application methods
@FJBeef
#DairyBEEF2019
15
48
153
Head scoop has to be the single best thing we have ever bought for the farm. Was about €670 two years ago, by the time VAT and grant got back I think it cost about €200. Don't know how we ever dosed/injected cattle without it.
8
8
150
Tell me you work off-farm without telling me you work off-farm
4
1
149
Feed 14 bales at the weekend and no more to be opened again until next weekend.
10
1
145
A shade over €20k including VAT to get this far! Hopefully a shed over it soon.
7
0
126
Fresh load of grass this morning for a two robot farm with 160 cows currently being milked, fully housed herd.
7
6
120
Trying to make life a bit easier, got meal bin stood at home last week, total cost including the base around €3,200. Would be hard to do without a 60% grant, net cost after grant and VAT back will be just over €1,200.
8
2
121
Hired a digger and dumper for the weekend, did well to get both stuck. Won't give up the day job any time soon 😅
3
0
118
Something a bit different, out with a farmer combining grazing with zerograzed grass. Milking 86 cows on one robot putting out 2,500 litres/day with only 26 acres around the house. Sixth year milking with a robot with half the diet coming from zerograzed grass.
12
5
118
Been following the construction of this for the past year with interest, the scale is unbelievable, 200 acre feedlot that will hold 40,000 cattle when finished. Yet the environmentalists here want to reduce stock numbers on a grass based grazing system - figure that one out.
Mill completion is within sight now. Last bin was set in place today. Upper troughs were installed. That should be the last of the high stress lifts.
15
6
423
7
18
116
Always have to admire the little finishing touches done on sheds, builder made up the mould and never told the farmer, kept it covered until the shed was finished! Existing Offaly dairy farmer who installed X2 robots last October now milking 130 cows - great roadways in place.
0
1
114
Plenty of help for silage anyway, just shy of 200 bales at 11 bales/acre made yesterday. Came in at €28/bale including fertiliser and slurry.
6
1
115
Two very tidy access gates into a new cubicle shed while not losing feed space
3
2
109
Two of the farms visited are using pipes filled with water to weigh down the pit, not something I've seen used before and something that is relatively new according to the farmers.
4
6
108
A backing gate with a twist! Impressed with so many aspects of the Gunn's new internal rotary set-up featured in this week's
@farmersjournal
3
10
104
Down in Cork this week at a new 200 cubicle shed put up with the help of a TAMS grant, a really hi-spec shed - no corners cut with materials! Major focus on making the farm as labour efficient as possible over the winter
@farmersjournal
3
8
99
Back down in Clare today to finalise the farmyard plan for an existing dairy farmer planning to put in a robot in the autumn. Robot will replace a 4-unit tie stall parlour!
12
3
100
Danish Jersey herd on target to do 620kg milk solids this year on farm in Monaghan. Was ABC grazing stocked at 5 cows/ha but changed to indoor and zerograzing early this year to take pressure off the grazing block. No doubt challenges to the system but working for this farm.
4
6
95
Decided to spray paint a heifer this week! Showing where you should and shouldn't inject cattle, last picture shows what can happen if an abscess develops in the rump
@farmersjournal
1
31
95
All the talk is on emissions but getting young farmers into the sector is going to be a big challenge, at an agri-environment training scheme on Saturday, advisor has 500 clients but the average age of his farmers is 72. New schemes wouldn't do much to encourage actual farming.
11
5
94
Vast majority of cows either lying down or at the feed face, very few cows standing idly in passageways or standing on cubicles, a sign of a good cubicle! Cow comfort a top priority, passageways spotless too
@farmersjournal
5
10
92
Update: after rooting around for half an hour with a digger and breaking a few straps, they finally got it out.
0
0
90
Angus heifer butchered for the freezer at home, 640kg liveweight, 362kg of a carcass and a 5+ for fat. By the time she was cut up there was 181kg of meat to go into the freezer. Generally get a heifer butchered every year but first time keeping track of the weights.
7
0
89
A quick walkthrough of the impressive handling unit that will be featured in next week's handling focus! Check it out for full costs and plans of the unit
@farmersjournal
8
6
89
Going to be an impressive set-up when it's finished, about 190 cubicles and space to go to four robots down the line. Project coordinator on site to work with the farmer and the builders to ensure things are right first time and to update plans as things change during the build.
2
3
87
Dairy heifers went from 268kg on 1st March to 455kg on 1st October. Put on 187kg or 0.87kg/day off grass.
4
1
86
Ran all the finishing cattle over the scales today, 3 pens of mainly dairy bred cattle averaged 565kg while pen of suckler bred cattle averaged 688kg. Pick of them was this lad at 732kg. Target is to be getting nearer 300kg carcase for the dairy lads so room for improvement.
5
2
84
Always like trying to feature something a little different to give farmers ideas for their own sheds, this calf shed certainly different to what I have looked at before!
@farmersjournal
3
11
81
Powerful flush wash system in operation on a farm I was out at last week, worked well in a narrow yard like this one, used to clean route cows took when exiting the parlour. Parlour washings stored in a suspended tank and gravity fed down to yard
@farmersjournal
4
7
81
Fleckvieh cows won't be for everyone but plenty to see as part of next week's virtual open day. New entrant in spring 2020, bedding cows on straw/miscanthus. Averaged 400kg solids across the herd that's currently half Fleckvieh cows and half Friesian cows. Minimal build
4
3
80
Really nice and simple design for a Vet/AI platform for a rotary parlour featured in this week's
@farmersjournal
, can be safely raised out of the way when not in use for the majority of the year. See the full video and article online and in print Thursday!
@FJDairy
6
11
78
Really impressive setup for a 70 cow suckler herd! Total cost of €130,000 - claim back €20,000 in VAT and €60,000 in grant leaves net cost at €50,000
@farmersjournal
4
9
75
Out on farm today at new entrant to milk, went with 35 fleckvieh heifers alongside 35 friesian heifers. Kept the building work to a minimum for a low-cost conversion. Great airy shed and lovely stock!
4
4
76
Final few bits done with the calving gate and camera fitted before cows start calving, should make things a bit easier.
5
0
76
Underpass gone in for an existing dairy farmer who just installed two robots in Co. Tipperary. It's 3.6m wide and 8.4m long, total cost came to €30,000.
6
2
74
This year's calves housed and weighed last weekend. First two pictures of the bullocks, average weight 251kg, last two pictures of the heifers, average weight 246kg. Have been well fed all summer, probably not far off €100/calf of meal, hopefully stands to them in the long run.
4
1
75
Nearly ready to fit two robots for a second unit in Co Galway. Cows will be calved on the home farm and brought over to this block for the grazing season. This block is on a long-term lease so investment in buildings kept to a minimum.
8
3
74
Not too many 420 cows herds that would get away with a 3m wide underpass!
5
2
73
This year's calves in for their clostridial vaccine. Half the group bulls, other half heifers, weighed about 2 weeks ago and average was 117kg.
1
1
72
87ft long tank with 12ft 6in slat (8ft deep) recently built on farm, worked out at €23,500 plus VAT for the tank and slats. Digging and backfilling, including stone, approx another €5,000 plus VAT. Working out at just over €320/ft plus VAT.
4
5
70
The last farm visited in the Netherlands had installed a Lely Orbiter which is an on-farm milk processing unit. Milk goes directly from the robots to the processing unit. Farm is currently processing about 2,500 litres/day over 8 hours.
5
7
70
Should be decent capacity in it when it's done! 130ft by nearly 50ft wide. Two robots to be installed with scope left to potentially go to four.
2
1
70
The struggle with dairy beef, I'd be tempted to sell him just so I don't have to look at him for the next year. He'll fairly pull down the average, the joys.
22
1
69
Couple of windbreakers gone up for two of the more exposed bays of the shed, been on the to do list for a few years. You could be forever buying little bits.
5
2
68
Had two different options for dividing gates for cubicle sheds on here recently and there was a lot of interest so here is option number three, a rotating up and over gate!
2
4
65
Third farm of the day finishes 1200 Charolais bulls a year at an average weight of 720kg. Beef price is €2.60/kg liveweight so could be getting a beef price over €4.35/kg carcass weight!
0
9
66
Complete washout here today but calves in good order. Eating just over 2kg/day.
5
2
65
Lucky to have been on a lot of farms over the years but this shed in Waterford has to be one of the most impressive finishes I've seen. Two robots installed, very tidy room for medicines/storage etc too.
3
1
66
First of the bullocks housed, clipped and weighed over the weekend. Pic 1 and 2 are suckler bred average 596kg, did 210kg since 1st March or 0.83kg/day. Last picture is the dairy bred lads, average 476kg, did 190kg at grass or 0.7kg/day.
1
1
65
Down this week at a 130-cow herd in Co Leitrim operating a fully housed system who recently constructed a new cubicle shed - always more focus put on comfort when cows are being milked off cubicles! See this week's
@farmersjournal
for all the details
@FJDairy
0
3
64
I've never seen as much anger and frustration from a room before, suckler and beef farmers at their ends wits
#beefsummit
@farmersjournal
7
8
62
It looks like all farmers will be eligible for 60% grant on farm safety investments in TAMS 3, this includes - mobile handling units, livestock monitoring cameras, bale slice, head scoop, weighing scales, yard lights, rewiring existing sheds - see attached full list.
0
1
63
Out at tidy suckler shed put up by a young farmer today, trying to keep costs to a minimum - net cost won't be much over €20,000 with the 60% grant
@farmersjournal
3
2
63
10 acres sprayed off two weeks ago, disced today, lime tomorrow, disc again Saturday and seed all going well.
2
2
62
Get a behind the scenes look at the impressive new suckler shed gone up at Teagasc Grange research farm to hold 150 suckler cows in print or online tomorrow
@TeagascBeef
@farmersjournal
4
8
62
With all the calf sheds being built should there be a standard design that works on all sites? This shed is designed to do just that - addresses key issues - ventilation, drainage, draughts and ease of cleaning! This week's
@farmersjournal
has an in-depth look!
@FJDairy
3
6
61
140ft long tank poured two weeks ago in Offaly. 14ft 6in slat and 8ft deep, working out at €35k including VAT. Includes everything except digging and stone which probably brings the total cost around €40k. Block work also started for a single robot, office and tank room.
6
0
61
An excellent table in this week's Farmers Journal going through the key dates for all schemes, highlights how complicated the paperwork around farming has got. Hard to do it without a good advisor. Worth picking up a copy, cutting out and keeping.
3
1
61
A somewhat different system being run by Cormac Quinn in Monaghan. Running a Danish Jersey herd on target to sell 620kg solids this year. Has the robot in 4 years now and this May moved to a zerograzing system to allow more ground to be brought into the rotation.
3
8
59
Some size of a shed, 16 bays long with just over 250 cubicles. Two robots nearly fitted with space left to install the 3rd and 4th robot. Shed itself is 260ft long and 110ft wide with three rows of head to head cubicles. Fully indoor unit with yard design by
@CallansCows
.
3
3
60
Down at
@DavidClivestock
last week to look at his state of the art 100 cow cubicle shed! See the full story in this week's
@farmersjournal
3
7
59
Quick pitstop on the way to Dublin to see the internal rotary in action on the Gunn's farm in Roscommon! Straight exit from the parlour, overall probably less turning on cows than a conventional rotary, check out milking focus in this week's
@farmersjournal
for more info
@FJDairy
0
8
59
No other scraper except the Discovery Collector would work in a shed like this with a tank at one end and feeding in a U-shape on three solid passages. 106 cows in the shed with three rows of head to head cubicles. Doing a great job on this shed for the past two years.
3
2
59
If you're thinking of putting up a calf shed have a look at this design, something different intended to work on all sites! Be careful if going through grant, Department specs very restrictive for calf sheds! Read the article for details
@farmersjournal
0
10
57
Be sure to check out the new handling unit down at the
#tullamorefarm
open day tomorrow! Will be running handling workshops throughout the day, looking at full coats of the unit too
@farmersjournal
2
8
58
Krunch Kart developed by four students from Sligo IT, most feeders drop feed out at the back, the lads wanted it to be able to feed in fields and along a feed barrier in sheds. On show in the
@Entirl
Innovation Arena
@farmersjournal
4
3
58
New entrant from last year, 85 cubicles in the shed, single robot fitted with the room built for a second one. Went with a double 100ft long slatted tank. Compact shed including a calving area, dairy, office and plant room. Father & son partnership with both working off-farm.
2
1
56
Dairy bullocks housed and weighed last weekend, did an average of 180kg since last time they were weighed on 23rd April or about 0.95kg/day - average weight 466kg now. Wasn't happy with how they did last winter, but did well at grass to make up for it.
1
1
56
Out in Co Meath today at a really impressive 170 cow cubicle shed, farmers in their second year milking. Investment of approximately €1,500/cow with no grant aid. See next week's
@farmersjournal
for all the details!
2
0
54
Nice to get a few light cattle out to clean off silage ground.
2
2
56
James O'Donovan from Co Galway is running 86 cows on one robot with only 26 acres available for grazing around the yard. Remainder of the diet is zerograzed grass, putting 2,500 litres/day through robot at peak. He talked through what's involved in the system! Part1/2
1
2
56
Down in Co Wicklow today at a new 16-unit parlour on a greenfield site for a 120-cow herd on a 100 acre block, see next week's
@farmersjournal
for all the details.
2
3
54
Development of a two robot shed from greenfield site to start-up in little over three months in Co Offaly. A lot of site visits throughout the build as project coordinator, made a record of the progress every visit! Finally pulled the clips together.
0
2
54
Not too often we get a few cows and calves to grass around here in February!
4
0
54
Down in Kerry today to collect calves for the Thrive - dairy calf to beef programme, went full tourist and stopped at Inch beach for a picture and all, some part of the world!
2
2
55
Out today weighing calves as part of the
@farmersjournal
Thrive dairy calf to beef programme, good time to get a handle on weights before calves go to grass!
2
1
53
Labour and calf welfare are two big challenges facing the Irish dairy industry moving forward! Over the next few weeks we're going to look at a few different housing options, check out this week's
@farmersjournal
for a new shed for 150 calves
@FJDairy
0
4
54