Agriland visited the farm of Shane and Kate Fitzgerald in Portlaw, Co. Waterford to see how an award-winning herd balances sustainability with production.

The couple, who are milking 200 spring calving Holstein cross cows, live by the motto 'leave the farm better than you got it'.

This has led to Shane and Kate incorporating a range of sustainable practices without compromising production.

Shane began farming full-time alongside his father John in 2016, with Kate quickly integrating into the farm system a few years later after meeting Shane.

The herd produced an average of 530kg milk solids (MS) in 2025.

The farm rears its own calves until a year old, then they are shipped off as yearlings to be contract reared and return as in calf maiden heifers.

Breeding

The Fitzgerald's breeding season kicks off in April, with selected cows served with long gestation beef bulls via artificial insemination (AI).

The following week dairy breeding begins, with the shorter gestation allowing the farm to start calving down in late January and maintain a compact calving season.

When breeding, the farm is focusing on the usuals - milk solids, fertility, and health traits.

However, they have started cross breeding in a bid to reduce the animals' physical size, and improve efficiency with less feed then given. Shane reckons a 520kg cow producing 520kg milk solids is a good target.

To achieve this, sexed semen is being used on the farm, with cows between their second and sixth lactation hand-picked for those straws.

Shane feels first lactation cows are under a bit more pressure and do not take to sexed semen as well as the older more robust animals in the herd.

Breeding takes place on the farm for 12 weeks, with the Fitzgeralds aiming for an empty rate below 10%.

Grass

The family farm has a strong focus on good grassland management, with over 40 grass measurements taken throughout the year.

Kate walks the farm at least once a week, if not every five days, with a grass hopper, with each paddock GPS mapped and automatically uploading to Pasturebase from those walks.

This allows the farm to make informed decisions, ensuring cows are entering paddocks with pre-grazing yields of 1,400kg DM/ha, ultimately boosting milk solids.

The grass walks also highlight poor performing paddocks, which will be then nominated for part of the annual reseeding programme, as 10% of the farm is reseeded on a yearly basis.

The farm has put a big focus on grazing infrastructure over the last number of years, with quality roadways in place, multiple access points, and sufficient water troughs.

This ultimately led to the family farm getting cows out in March. However, the couple also praised multispecies saying the deep roots has improved soil structure and drainage on the farm.

With as much as 20% of the farm in multispecies at one stage, and clover incorporated in every reseed, the family has managed to reduce chemical nitrogen from 250kg/ha to 160kg/ha in the last number of years.

The cows are now on 24-hour grazings, with the rotations in or around 17-18 days.

Sustainability

Kate told Agriland that they are very much into biodiversity on the farm, with a number of practices in place.

The have planted new hedgerows this year, and another section of the farm was planted with hedgerows three years ago.

The farm has occupied owl boxes and a paddock planted with trees, as well as an on-site lake.

They have fenced the farm in a way that leaves 3m/4m buffer zones from water courses and margins.

They do not use any pesticides on farm, and only spread slurry using low emission slurry spreading techniques such as a dribble bar.

This has allowed them to max out their ACRES without going too extreme and compromising their milk or grassland production.

However, the couple noted that sustainability does not just mean biodiversity. They believe in three pillars:

Economics - farm profitability;
Environment - Practices mentioned above;
Labour - attractive workplace and work-life balance.

The farm takes pride in the labour side of things, saying they aim to create an environment in which people enjoy working in.

Shane believes it is no good to have a high producing profitable herd if they cannot get away from the farm and enjoy time with friends and family too.

Award-winning farm

The farm recently won the Tirlán Farm Ambassador Award, before going on to be named as the 2026 Tirlán Milk Suppliers of the Year.

Kate said it was an emotional day to be up there with the whole family, but she also stressed that they do not do all the work that they do to win awards.

However at the same time she agreed that it is always lovely to get that recognition.

According to Shane, it is great to shine a light on the positive aspects of farming, particularly because of some of the negativity that has arisen recently in the industry over various protests.

He said: "We do take great pride in what we do and we are proud to be Irish dairy farmers.

"It's lovely for us to showcase that, we always say that we just want to leave the farm in a better place than where we got it, that's the legacy we want to leave behind."