‘A lasso, an ash plant and a good dog’

Approximately 900ft above sea level, on the rocky terrain of the Burren in Co Clare, Tiernan McCormack’s herd of 25 suckler cows is on the brink of calving. These cows have been up in the winterage since October, almost fully sustained by their surroundings.

“They don’t need any feeding over the winter, only some concentrates,” explained Tiernan. “They get 2kg of oats and 1.5kg of beef nuts before calving and they get 3kg of beef nuts after calving to keep the energy up.” They only get this every second day, which forces them to go off and graze – not loiter around the troughs all day.

As Tiernan doesn’t have a shed, the cows calve up here too. “Nine out of ten cows will calve themselves,” he explained. “The way the cows are bred is a big part of it, but they are also seriously fit from being up here.”

That said, there’s not a calving gate in sight for a cow that does need assistance. But there’s always a way. And that way involves tying a cow to a nearby bush. “A lasso, an ash plant and a good dog. If I’ve those three things up here, I’ll manage,” he grinned.

By now, you’re probably getting an idea of how challenging this landscape really is – especially with the current weather conditions. Tiernan looks at the cows twice daily at this time of the year.

“Sometimes it can be an awful job to find cows after calving. In the bad weather, they really do have to be hardy to fight the conditions. Some bushes and hollows would give them a bit of shelter. In fine weather, the biggest concern is a heavily pregnant cow lying out, rolling into a hollow and getting stuck on her back,” he said.

Summer grazing

An equally challenging prospect for Tiernan is securing summer grazing. “I’d like to start bringing the cows down off the winterage in the second week of April once they have calved,” he said. “But I have to get summer grazing ground for them.” So far he has 4ac, but he would like to have 50ac.

The winterage is stripped from April to October. The pasture re-grows and the flowers come out. That’s the following year’s winter feeding in the making. “After the really dry summer in 2018, the grass changed up in the winterage,” he said. “It all burned off and, when it grew back, it was too lush. The cows ate it too quickly.” There’s a saying in the spring time – ‘graze half, and leave half’ – meaning there should be some coarse grass, as well as some fresh pickings when the cows return next October.

At what stage in October they return will depend on ground conditions and the availability of grass on the summer ground. The weight of Tiernan’s calves will also play a part. “The calves are sold in Kilfenora Mart, straight off the cow,” he said. “I like to be selling bull weanlings at about 300kg and heifers at around 280kg. Any year I can average €850 for my bulls I’m happy.”

The cow

So what does a cow need to be to survive on the Burren? “I can’t have a big cow. Those 800kg plus ones won’t work. Around 650kg is big enough,” he explained. The cow also needs to be hardy.

Even though he’s still a young man, Tiernan has already settled on his ideal cow-type. “I breed most of my own replacements. My ideal replacement would be one out of a Shorthorn cow and a Blonde D’Aquitaine bull,” he said.

The Shorthorn brings the hardiness and the Blonde brings the power and quality. “She’s a great cow, and if I put a Charolais or Limousin bull on her, I get a good quality, golden-coloured calf,” he added.

Health wise, fluke is a big issue. Cows have to be dosed three times during the winter – twice before Christmas and once after. Another problem is redwater: “This is limestone ground. I can only buy cattle from the area – we call them limestone cattle – because they will have resistance to the ticks.” It’s a limiting issue when it comes to buying in a stock bull or a replacement heifer.

Farming in the Burren

Tiernan completed a Green Cert in Gurteen Agricultural College and stayed on there for three more years to work with the suckler herd. He eventually went further afield, spending three years working in the construction industry in New York. “It was a sentence,” he said. “The work was tough but I did come back with a few pound to set myself up here.”

There’s many young people that never get close to starting up themselves: “I’d safely say I’m the youngest person selling cattle in Kilfenora Mart. And I’m definitely one of the youngest with my own cattle in the Burren,” Tiernan said.

“It’s too hard for young people to get into this. Between renting ground and stocking it, it’s just too much”. Not to mention the workload: “It’s a very low-input, low-cost system here, but it certainly is high labour.”

“And for what?” he added. “Sure I’m probably a fool. I’d be better off having seven cows, drawing all the grants and going off working. That’s what a lot of people are doing here.”

It’s the grants that make up the majority of income for Burren farmers, but these too are under threat from the proposed cuts in the next round of CAP reforms. It’s critical for these farmers to jump at every support payment offered, and Tiernan recognises that, as he has the herd in the BDGP and BEEP schemes.

There’s only one thing stopping him from packing it all in – the love of the job: “I go off and do different jobs from time to time, but I’m not happy at it,” he said. “It’s what I enjoy doing and I’m going to keep pushing with it.”

In the next five years, he plans to double his cow numbers from 25 to nearly 50 cows. His winterage would sustain that number of cows, but the most limiting factor is securing summer grazing ground.