Scientists have solved the perennial problem facing dairy farmers who want to go the All-Ireland Hurling Final - how to get home in time to milk the cows. The good news is: they no longer have to.
Experts at Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority, have found that farmers can skip Sunday evening milking at this time of year without any detrimental affect on the cows - or on milk yields. Milking twice a day is traditionally one of the most immutable features of rural life with the working life of dairy farmers and their families being built around the task.
Dr Padraig French, head of the dairy research department at Teagasc's Moorepark facility in Fermoy, said "farmers always thought that they had to milk twice a day" - and they do most weeks of the year. But he explained that "at this time of year it is safe to cut down to 13 times a week with no adverse affect on production or on the pocket". He said cows are at the peak of their milk production from April to June but then yields begin to drop until autumn.
The findings are significant for hurling supporters because the game is traditionally strongest in those counties where dairy farming predominates. Farmers could chose any day to take a break from milking but Sunday evening will appeal to many as hurling matches are normally played on Sunday afternoons.
As a result, Dr French agreed that farmers who wanted to go to Croke Park and stay on for the after-match celebrations could do so "without a guilty conscience".
The news will be welcomed in both counties Kilkenny and Limerick who will meet in the All-Ireland Final on Sunday week. Both counties are major centres of dairy farming and hurling strongholds.
The traditional "milking dilemma" has not just affected fans. Dr French pointed out that over the years many dairy farmers had also been hurling stars in counties such as Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny. Among this year's All-Ireland finalists, Mike O'Brien of the Limerick team is a dairy farmer in Glenroe while Kilkenny's full back Noel Hickey farms at Dunnamaggan and John Tennyson at Hugginstown.
Dr French said that Teagasc is engaged in ongoing research to reduce milking to a once-a-day activity all year round - a trend already apparent in countries like New Zealand where dairy cows are being specially bred to require them to be milked only once a day.
He said the purpose was to make dairy farming less labour-intensive and enhance the lifestyle of farmers to help them stay in the industry. He added: "It is tough for a young dairy farmer to be tied to having to milk the cows every day, twice a day, 365 days of the year."
