Bruce Thompson of Camcloon Dairy is milking 300 cows in Ballyfin, Co. Laois, with a real sense of New Zealand around the place.

The majority of the herd is made up of Kiwi-cross cows, with Thompson starting to cross-breed Jerseys through the Friesians back in 2016, and the first calves landing on farm in 2017.

Similar to New Zealand, Thompson's key metric when it comes to the herd is the volume of milk being produced relative to the animals body weight.

Last year, his herd delivered an average of 488kg milk solids (MS) off of an average herd weight of 480kg, grazing on a 380ac block.

He is a firm believer that it is a loss of production having additional live weight moving around on pasture and not delivering the milk.

To make things more New Zealand-esque, Thompson is milking the herd through a 40-unit Waikato rotary parlour, with Waikato heat detection collars also fitted on the herd.

In addition to this, the farm has Levno milk monitoring technology installed, ensuring that production and efficiency targets are being met.

New Zealand

Camcloon Dairy recently hosted New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) alongside a crowd of dairy farmers to show how New Zealand dairy tech is integrating into Irish farms.

New Zealand Ambassador to Ireland, Angela Hassan-Sharp, officially opened the event.

The ambassador said: "Ireland and New Zealand are natural partners, we are both small, outward looking island nations with agriculture at the heart of our economies".

She said that the two nations face similar conditions while both are focused on high quality milk production from pasture, which the ambassador highlighted, is why they share a similar interest in dairy technology.

Trade Commissioner for Ireland and the UK at NZTE, Jacob Briars also spoke on the day.

Briars highlighted how the two nations have a strong focus on efficiency as they work against a variety of challenges - from unpredictable weather conditions to global and national regulations.

According to Bruce Thompson, the Irish and Kiwis have a lot in common.

"We both worship rainfall, measure happiness in dry matter percentages, success in terms of kilos of milk solids, and can turn a conversation about cow genetics into a three-hour hot debate," he added.

There were a dozen different agriculture technology groups present on the day, showcasing innovative tools that are working in both New Zealand and Ireland, and helping to boost efficiency in pasture-based dairy enterprises.

These ranged from milking systems to pasture based machinery, and from cow and calf health to New Zealand genetics.

The audience at the event got an insight into how each agri-tech solution is working across both nations.

On the day, Waikato Milking Systems; MilkTechNZ; Tow and Fert; Gallagher; CRV; Mastaplex; Levno; Hustler Equipment; Bovonic; Shoof; Milk Bar; and LIC all gave insights into their products.

It is obvious that there will alway be differences between the two nations and not every New Zealand practice will work on an Irish farms and visa versa.

However, the opportunity to work together on agri-tech has proved successful, with farmers from both nations benefiting from the outcomes and continuing to strive for efficiency in terms of grass to milk.