The Cannons – Dairy Farm

My name is Jason Rankin and I would like to extend to you a very warm "virtual" welcome to our farm which I farm in partnership with my father.The farm is situated near the top of the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. Being surrounded by water on three sides (to the north Belfast Lough, to the west Strangford Lough and to the east the Irish Sea) the farm has very temperate climate moderated by the gulf stream. Being about as far east as ou can get on the Island of Ireland it is also relatively dry with an annualrainfall of only 32 inches (low for Ireland). Farm Mission Objective: "To maximize

profit and lifestyle while maintaining high standards of dairy hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection."We believe the best way to achieve the above objective is to maximize the use of grazed grass. They say that from space there are two areas on earth that stand out as being green: Ireland and New Zealand. Grass is one of the richest resources of this Island and we believe that its use should be maximized, especially grazed grass. The farm is ideally suited for grazing. Despite a Northerly latitude (52 degrees North) the winters are mild and 24 hour frosts & lying snow are rare (about once or twice a year). Grazed grass is by far the cheapest feed available to us. High dry matter grass silage costs around three times the price of grazed grass. In addition to this high quality spring grass can support over twice the amount of milk that even the best silage can maintain thus saving on concentrate costs which are about 4 to 5 times the price of grazed grass. In addition to this there are additional fixed costs associated with silage and housing. These include additional slurry costs, bedding, labour, machinery, electric and veterinary costs.