#Text and Pictures: Pablo Silva Bolona

Ireland has a rich tradition of dairy farming. With over 16,000 commercial dairy farmers supplying milk to approximately 30 milk processing cooperatives (Central Statistics Office, 2024), it contributes significantly to the Irish economy. Most farms in Ireland operate a spring calving system (where cows calve between February and April and are dried-off between November and December), with a number of herds producing milk during the winter months. The average herd size according to the last survey was 92 cows (National Farm Survey, 2023) and comprised of mostly owner-operated farms, with family as the most common source of help around the farm. The above mentioned factors contribute to a significant workload for farmers in specific times of the year, coinciding with times in the cow’s productive cycle when they are most at risk of acquiring new infections (i.e. shortly before and after calving and shortly after drying-off).