Despite a return to more challenging market conditions, autumn milk output continues to increase in Northern Ireland.
Semex regional manager, John Berry told Agriland: “We are seeing cows produce high volumes of milk that is of an exceptional quality.
“Recent years have seen dairy farmers across Northern Ireland increasingly commit to autumn calving systems.
“In part, this has been due to the availability of winter milk bonuses from all the dairy processers.
“Another issue coming into play is the fact that autumn calving gives dairy farmers better management control of their cows during the dry period and then through to early lactation.”
Berry also noted that, in tandem with the growing focus on autumn calving, there has been “a high level of investment in improved housing systems on many dairy farms across Northern Ireland”.
“We are also seeing the implementation of enhanced dry cow management systems within housing environments that are much better suited to cows at all stages in their production cycle,” he said.
“The end result is cows calving down well with the ability to produce large volumes of high quality milk from the get-go.”
The Semex representative also pointed to the availability of high quality grass silage and forage maize being additional factors in improving milk output levels at the present time.
He explained: “This has been a tremendous year for grass, forage maize and wholecrop silage.
“Dairy farmers are fully aware of the benefits that can be secured by including two forage sources within a total mixed ration.
“Forage maize ticks all the boxes as a high energy fodder source for dairy cows. Adding to this momentum is the fact that maize crops performed tremendously well in 2025.
“Once farmers have trialled maize, they tend to stick with it.”
Breeding season
Berry said all of this means that milk producers can look forward to the autumn/winter breeding season with a high degree of confidence.
He pointed out that milk producers in Northern Ireland can now plan bespoke herd breeding programmes that can meet every requirement – from a production and milk components’ perspective through to attributes directly associated with health, fertility, and type.
He said: “The use of sexed semen on heifers and cows is allowing farmers to secure higher levels of genetic progress throughout their herds in a shorter period of time.”
According to the Semex representative, a Holstein sire already in strong demand is Beyond Hi-Praise.
He is positive in terms of enhanced milk production and constituents while breeding daughters that have tremendous type and health traits.
