Where is Keogh’s farm based?

The Keogh family have been farming here in Ballyboughal, Co Dublin, for over 200 years. In total, we grow 400 acres of potatoes every year. In the five-mile radius in this part of north Dublin, about 65% of all of Ireland’s fresh produce and vegetables are grown. This area is a real powerhouse in terms of farming production.

What varieties of potatoes do you grow?

The Rooster variety is the main variety we grow on our farm. About 65% of all the potatoes grown in Ireland are Roosters. In all, we plant about 20 different potato varieties each year. We even have our own variety development programme that’s bringing through 20 new varieties every year.

How has the summer drought affected the 2018 potato crop?

2018 has been like a perfect storm in terms of weather. The spring snow in March pushed back the planting season by a month or so. We got planted in April but then the drought landed in the summer. For 14 weeks in the summer we had just 25mm of rain here which really hurt our potato crops. Potatoes need 25mm of rain per week in ideal conditions. Our soils here in north Dublin are light earthy soils and the fields were like a desert during the drought.

Are you harvesting potatoes right now?

In a normal year we’d be finished our potato harvest by mid-October. However, because of the weather this year the potatoes are late coming ready to harvest. It will be November, maybe as far as mid-November, before we get this season’s harvest completed. Harvesting into November presents significant challenges because once the weather drops below 6°C you can’t harvest or you will bruise the potatoes.

How have you developed the farm business?

There are three main areas to our business. We grow potatoes, we fresh pack potatoes for general retail and since 2011 we’ve been making crisps from our potatoes. I never thought the crisp business would grow into what it is today. We’re now turning 1-2t of potatoes into crisps every day. From 1t of potatoes we will get 250kg of crisps. It’s a 4:1 ratio.

How has the crisp side of the business grown?

We started in 2011 with just one potato fryer. We were hand-filling potatoes into the slicer, frying them and bagging 20 bags of crisps per minute. This year we’ve installed our fourth fryer and the on-farm production facility is doing 300 bags per minute. Any waste crisps from the crisping process goes to local farmers who use it as animal feed for cattle.

Profile

Title: Managing director.

Company: Keogh’s.

Location: Ballyboughal, Co Dublin.

Product range: Crisps, popcorn and potatoes.