A farmer recently told me that farming was a kind of “disease”. He could see that he was continuing to lose money at it every year but he loved it too much to stop. Many people will be surprised to find that Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is struck with the same farm affliction.
Casually propped against the feed rail of the bull shed by his home in Westmeath, he tells me his 500-strong Gigginstown herd of Angus cattle just about manage to break even “in a good year”.
It’s not the kind of comment you’d expect from a man known for his sharp sense of financial efficiency and one who has been listed on the Forbes rich list.
But the Cork native has a real grá for the cattle, which is clearly reciprocated as his Angus bulls saunter over to us for a scratch.
Farmers will envy his ability to keep farming and not have to worry about the money side, but as O’Leary’s annual sale approaches, he’s keen to point out the selling points of the 50 pedigree Angus bulls and heifers that will be on offer on Saturday 20 April.
Love for the cattle hasn’t totally befuddled his sense of the bottom line.
The serious question is always going to be about money. Your averages were down €1,000 last year. What are you hoping for this year?
Hereford breeder Hannah Quinn-Mulligan failed to convince O'Leary to switch cattle breeds. / Philip Doyle
Michael O’Leary: I think given where the market is, prices will probably be down a bit again. Farming is struggling at the moment, particularly with Brexit, and people are uncertain.
Hopefully with Easter being later, a lot of the dairy men will be there looking for quality Angus bulls. They’re all there to be sold, we don’t have a reserve and we’re not going to mess around on pricing.
As a businessman you are known for financial efficiency, but could your beef farm survive without your off-farm income?
Generally the cattle lose money in a year and the horses make up for it. In a good year, the cattle side will break even.
If you were thinking of farming full-time, would you convert to another type of farming like dairy?
No. It’s very fashionable at the moment but it’s too labour intensive. We’re fortunate that we have about 1,000ac but the land here in Westmeath suits beef farming and bloodstock (horses).
There’s a lot of talk about certain individuals, such as Larry Goodman, who people feel shouldn’t get a farm payment. Do you think that you should get a farm payment?
Frankly, no. But I don’t think it will save the EU much money if you’re going to take payments from people like the Queen or Larry Goodman.
Ultimately, I think the budgetary constraints of the European Union means that they’re going to reduce the payments for everybody and I think that we’re all going to have to adjust to that over time.
Is the farm payment your profit after a year?
It doesn’t make that much of a difference. I get about €30,000 or €40,000 in farm payments in a year here. I would prefer over a long period of time if all these subsidies were removed and everybody went to basic market prices.
In the next CAP there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on what determines an “active farmer”. How would you define an “active farmer”?
Ultimately, I think it’s a kind of nonsense. It’s just a way for the EU to reduce payments further.
I mean, am I an “active farmer”? No.
But I employ eight people on the farm, all of whom are very active, so I’m not sure how you would discriminate against an owner who doesn’t actually farm the farm but who is creating employment here on the farm and would be as entitled to it as anyone else would be.
I could imagine that people would switch payments to the farm manager’s name or something like that. There will always be a way around these systems.
We’ve seen this year the rise of a new group called the Beef Plan Movement that operates via WhatsApp. Are you in the Beef Plan Movement WhatsApp group for Westmeath?
Nope. If they’re sending around WhatsApp messages or messages on social media then I’m not in it.
Do you think there are too many farm organisations?
Yes, and I don’t think they really service the industry that well anyway.
In terms of the whole climate debate and people giving out about the gas from cows burping and farting affecting the environment, what are your thoughts?
The climate has been changing for thousands of years and will continue to do so. Our meat is not intensively reared, we don’t inject it the way they do in the US. We produce a very high-quality product and we need to do more to promote it. We need to stop criticising ourselves or listening to idiots who want to tax it.
But if someone was to argue to put a carbon tax on agriculture or the airline industry, which one do you think would make a bigger difference?
Neither. Because both will be unsuccessful in what it is they’re trying to achieve. This idea that by taxing something we’re just going to reduce its use is nonsense.
We talked about veganism last year and you called it a “fad”. Some people would say it has gone from strength to strength.
The world is not going to convert to veganism, the sales at Burger King and McDonald’s continue to rise. It is a fad, it won’t survive.
What we’re trying to do here is to get people to eat Angus meat because it is by far and away the best beef we produce in this country.
As a Hereford breeder I have to say that Hereford is not that bad either.
Don’t mind those Herefords. Over-rated red-heads!
You were infamous at one stage for spending a lot of money bringing bulls over from Canada. Do you have any plans to continue doing that?
Not really. We have a herd of over 500 cattle and we continue to invest in the best genetics we can find in Canada, the States and Scotland.
But we have a very good foundation base of cows here. We run them with six stock bulls and we continue to keep the standards up.
We want to make this not just one of the best Angus herds in Ireland, but the whole of Europe.
Calve down 150 pedigree Angus cows and heifers annually.Heifers calve down between 24 and 30 months.60% autumn calving.Bulls on 16% ration ahead of sale.Bulls sold at an average 700kg weight.Bulls sold between 15 to 18 months.Older variety of grass for mixed grazing.Six stock bulls on farm.Small percentage of AI used. Read more
Watch and listen: ‘Horses would make money, but I love the cattle'
Angus breeder on Forbes billionaire list
Gigginstown Angus herd facts
A farmer recently told me that farming was a kind of “disease”. He could see that he was continuing to lose money at it every year but he loved it too much to stop. Many people will be surprised to find that Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is struck with the same farm affliction.
Casually propped against the feed rail of the bull shed by his home in Westmeath, he tells me his 500-strong Gigginstown herd of Angus cattle just about manage to break even “in a good year”.
It’s not the kind of comment you’d expect from a man known for his sharp sense of financial efficiency and one who has been listed on the Forbes rich list.
But the Cork native has a real grá for the cattle, which is clearly reciprocated as his Angus bulls saunter over to us for a scratch.
Farmers will envy his ability to keep farming and not have to worry about the money side, but as O’Leary’s annual sale approaches, he’s keen to point out the selling points of the 50 pedigree Angus bulls and heifers that will be on offer on Saturday 20 April.
Love for the cattle hasn’t totally befuddled his sense of the bottom line.
The serious question is always going to be about money. Your averages were down €1,000 last year. What are you hoping for this year?
Hereford breeder Hannah Quinn-Mulligan failed to convince O'Leary to switch cattle breeds. / Philip Doyle
Michael O’Leary: I think given where the market is, prices will probably be down a bit again. Farming is struggling at the moment, particularly with Brexit, and people are uncertain.
Hopefully with Easter being later, a lot of the dairy men will be there looking for quality Angus bulls. They’re all there to be sold, we don’t have a reserve and we’re not going to mess around on pricing.
As a businessman you are known for financial efficiency, but could your beef farm survive without your off-farm income?
Generally the cattle lose money in a year and the horses make up for it. In a good year, the cattle side will break even.
If you were thinking of farming full-time, would you convert to another type of farming like dairy?
No. It’s very fashionable at the moment but it’s too labour intensive. We’re fortunate that we have about 1,000ac but the land here in Westmeath suits beef farming and bloodstock (horses).
There’s a lot of talk about certain individuals, such as Larry Goodman, who people feel shouldn’t get a farm payment. Do you think that you should get a farm payment?
Frankly, no. But I don’t think it will save the EU much money if you’re going to take payments from people like the Queen or Larry Goodman.
Ultimately, I think the budgetary constraints of the European Union means that they’re going to reduce the payments for everybody and I think that we’re all going to have to adjust to that over time.
Is the farm payment your profit after a year?
It doesn’t make that much of a difference. I get about €30,000 or €40,000 in farm payments in a year here. I would prefer over a long period of time if all these subsidies were removed and everybody went to basic market prices.
In the next CAP there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on what determines an “active farmer”. How would you define an “active farmer”?
Ultimately, I think it’s a kind of nonsense. It’s just a way for the EU to reduce payments further.
I mean, am I an “active farmer”? No.
But I employ eight people on the farm, all of whom are very active, so I’m not sure how you would discriminate against an owner who doesn’t actually farm the farm but who is creating employment here on the farm and would be as entitled to it as anyone else would be.
I could imagine that people would switch payments to the farm manager’s name or something like that. There will always be a way around these systems.
We’ve seen this year the rise of a new group called the Beef Plan Movement that operates via WhatsApp. Are you in the Beef Plan Movement WhatsApp group for Westmeath?
Nope. If they’re sending around WhatsApp messages or messages on social media then I’m not in it.
Do you think there are too many farm organisations?
Yes, and I don’t think they really service the industry that well anyway.
In terms of the whole climate debate and people giving out about the gas from cows burping and farting affecting the environment, what are your thoughts?
The climate has been changing for thousands of years and will continue to do so. Our meat is not intensively reared, we don’t inject it the way they do in the US. We produce a very high-quality product and we need to do more to promote it. We need to stop criticising ourselves or listening to idiots who want to tax it.
But if someone was to argue to put a carbon tax on agriculture or the airline industry, which one do you think would make a bigger difference?
Neither. Because both will be unsuccessful in what it is they’re trying to achieve. This idea that by taxing something we’re just going to reduce its use is nonsense.
We talked about veganism last year and you called it a “fad”. Some people would say it has gone from strength to strength.
The world is not going to convert to veganism, the sales at Burger King and McDonald’s continue to rise. It is a fad, it won’t survive.
What we’re trying to do here is to get people to eat Angus meat because it is by far and away the best beef we produce in this country.
As a Hereford breeder I have to say that Hereford is not that bad either.
Don’t mind those Herefords. Over-rated red-heads!
You were infamous at one stage for spending a lot of money bringing bulls over from Canada. Do you have any plans to continue doing that?
Not really. We have a herd of over 500 cattle and we continue to invest in the best genetics we can find in Canada, the States and Scotland.
But we have a very good foundation base of cows here. We run them with six stock bulls and we continue to keep the standards up.
We want to make this not just one of the best Angus herds in Ireland, but the whole of Europe.
Calve down 150 pedigree Angus cows and heifers annually.Heifers calve down between 24 and 30 months.60% autumn calving.Bulls on 16% ration ahead of sale.Bulls sold at an average 700kg weight.Bulls sold between 15 to 18 months.Older variety of grass for mixed grazing.Six stock bulls on farm.Small percentage of AI used. Read more
Watch and listen: ‘Horses would make money, but I love the cattle'
Angus breeder on Forbes billionaire list
Gigginstown Angus herd facts
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