{"id":170640,"date":"2025-12-02T07:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/170640\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T07:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:41:15","slug":"why-this-west-cork-farmer-spent-nearly-e700k-on-a-new-60-stall-rotary-milking-parlour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/170640\/","title":{"rendered":"Why this West Cork farmer spent nearly \u20ac700k on a new 60-stall rotary milking parlour"},"content":{"rendered":"

John O\u2019Donovan reckons his investment will cut milking time for his 380-cow herd from 3\u00bd hours to 1\u00bd\n<\/p>\n

His herd is entirely made up of Jersey crosses, which he favours for their reliable health, low maintenance and strong milk solid counts.<\/p>\n

This week on the farm outside Drimoleague, a brand-new 60-stall GEA T8600 rotary milking parlour has been the main focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just started milking in it this week, so were getting used to it,\u201d says John, who farms with his sons Hugh and Will, along with a full-time and a part-time worker.<\/p>\n

\"Cows<\/p>\n

Cows in the parlour<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day was the toughest. They\u2019re coming in fine. It\u2019s just the backing off is a bit different for them. There\u2019s a man standing there at the moment, just to tip them out.<\/p>\n

The unit took four months to build and install, with an automatic plant washer placed next to the parlour.<\/p>\n

John had hoped for his new parlour to be in use by last spring.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John watches Hugh working<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started digging out for them about this time last year but it took longer than we expected. When I bought it originally, I said we\u2019d have it going for this past spring. And they had the parlour arrived all right, but we weren\u2019t ready,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The decision to move away from the previous 24-unit DeLaval parlour came as a result of labour shortages, given the time-intensive process needed to milk the O\u2019Donovans\u2019 386 cows \u2013 milking used to take up to 3\u00bd hours.<\/p>\n

\"'We<\/p>\n

‘We think this will cut down our milking time by half’<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think this will cut down our milking time by half. I\u2019d say we\u2019ll be about an hour and a half.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just harder to get staff\u2026 and I\u2019d say it\u2019d be easier to get fellas to do milking if they\u2019re not as long at it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

John is also hoping the investment will cut down his own workload.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to get the cows in now for the person milking, whereas I\u2019d be hoping that the fella that\u2019s here all the time will be able to do that because he won\u2019t be as long milking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A farm walk in the sheds<\/p>\n

Despite recent milk price cuts of 3-4c\/L \u2013and processors signalling that further reductions are expected \u2013 John\u2019s outlook on the dairy industry remains positive, following his investment, which cost between \u20ac600,000 and \u20ac700,000 \u2013 \u201ccloser to \u20ac700,000, I\u2019d say\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re taking a big cut at the moment, but it\u2019s hard to predict a small variation in the world supply. That can change things overnight nearly. We\u2019re dealing the world market and supply and demand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Beef prices are expected to remain strong going into 2026 as a result of strong global demand and limited supply, but a return to beef is out of the question for the O\u2019Donovans.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John has no expansion plans<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t go back to beef. It\u2019s after taking a big jump this year in price, but there are years where beef fellas are making nothing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the farm, the O\u2019Donovans aim to have all stock dried off by December 20.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John O\u2019Donovan in the new rotary milking parlour on his dairy farm near Drimoleague, West Cork. Photos: Andy Gibson<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s News in 90 seconds – Monday, December 1st 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just getting housing ready. We\u2019ve brought all the in-calf heifers in now. The weanlings are still out, but they\u2019ll be coming in in the next three to four weeks,\u201d John says.<\/p>\n

He is focused on fixing, maintaining and upgrading farm roads over winter. He has no plans for future expansion \u2013 that could be in the hands of his oldest son Hugh, a third-year agriculture student at Munster Technological University.<\/p>\n

\"John's<\/p>\n

John’s son Hugh in the parlour<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely going out farming. He wouldn\u2019t do anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy enough where we are,\u201d John says of any down-the-line expansion. \u201cThat\u2019s up to himself I suppose. I have enough done now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John O\u2019Donovan reckons his investment will cut milking time for his 380-cow herd from 3\u00bd hours to 1\u00bd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,9609,61,60],"class_list":["post-170640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dairy-farm-profiles","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}