I’m Peter Cooke, my wife Lorna and I are the proud parents of four daughters; Alannah, Lilly, Ava and April who are aged between fifteen and twenty-one.
In 1996, once I’d finished the farm management course with Farm Apprenticeship Board, I came back to farm here in Tipperary, on my family’s farm. At the time our dairy herd was still quite small, with only thirty-five to forty cows, so I started to build it up.
My late father had a passion for Herefords and when I was quite young, he bought three cows and registered his prefix Bawnlea, the prefix that we still use today. In 2018, with the dairy herd built up I got back into Herefords, and I bought two Heifers in the October Premier Sale in Tullamore.
My daughter Lilly has a real passion for Herefords, she loves to get them ready to show, washing them, leading them, training them, I try to pass on what I learned from my father down to her. Alannah and Ava enjoy milking, while April enjoys working with the calves. All four daughters are a great help around the farm, and they all really enjoy being involved.
I would encourage all dairy farmers to consider using a Hereford bull on their stock. They are animals which finish easily off grass or out of the shed if needs be, so there’s options to suit every farm and they are very docile and easy to work with.
Our plan going forwards is to keep going with the Herefords, farming as efficiently and as sustainably as possible.
We have now built our herd up to eighteen cows, which is the most we can manage on this farm.
