Dairy Manager Job in Germany
Real Grass Milk, an 850-cow enterprise – based in Germany and owned by two Co Galway brothers, Paul and Stephen Costello – is recruiting a new farm manager.
The current manager is vacanting the position following an eight-year stint on the progressive, award-winning farm, Grasmilch Brandenburg.
This is a future-focused spring-calving and pastured-based enterprise with modern milking facilities, including a new 60-bail Waikato parlour.
As previously reported by That’s Farming, the enterprise was awarded the Ceres Award for the best cow farmer (covering dairy and beef) in 2021 for its vision drive, adopting a sustainable approach to farming and pasture-based milk production.
It focuses on animal health and welfare, reducing antibiotic use and incorporating superior NZ genetics into its breeding programme.
Dairy managerial role
Speaking to That’s Farming editor, Catherina Cunnane, Vicki of Real Grass Milk, said:
“Our current manager, Kevin, is moving back to Ireland with his young family.”
“He has been such an amazing addition to the farm for the last eight years, and his input has been invaluable to the progression of the farm over the years,” Vicky concluded.
“The ideal candidate we would like to be a positive mindset, good with people, be innovative and ambitious, hold a full driving licence and grassland management experience would be a huge bonus.”
“Also, we are offering a lot of career progression for the right candidate. We are also open to a couple taking the job too.”
“We offer an attractie wage packing including accommodation and trasnport,” she concluded.
To seek further information about the role, email – [email protected]
Farming tradition
The Costello family is best known for its association with pig production throughout Ireland, the UK and Germany, a tradition started by their father, Billy and Pat.
Currently, throughout the Emerald Isle, they operate pig units in a large biogas plant in Kildare (Green Generation), while in the UK, they own pig units and a biogas plant, and in Germany, their enterprise revolves around pig units, biogas, tillage and dairy.
“In 1991, Billy bought the first of the pig farms in Germany and in 2014, Paul and Stephen purchased the 1,500-hectare dairy and tillage farm, of which 400ha of that was grassland.” Vicky Lynch explained.
When they purchased the dairy farm, it was home to a 400-strong high-yielding all-year-round calving herd of Holsteins farmed under an indoor system.
“We kept this system going for a while, which proved very costly, and with the abolishment of milk quotas in 2015, we had a choice to make.”
“We either had to get bigger, which would have meant huge investment in infrastructure as the existing farm buildings etc, were in poor condition and built like every typical east German farm, which, at the end of the day would leave us with the same milk price as everyone else.”
You can read the full interview with Grasmilch Brandenburg
