Each year, Irish Country Living explores the idea of farming succession both practically, in financial and professional terms; and holistically, examining the many ways succession affects families and relationships.
As important a topic as it is, it is also extremely broad. Every farm is unique, and so is every succession story, for better or worse.
At Ballyhip Organic Farm near Mountnugent, Co Cavan, Barney and Siobhan McDonnell always encouraged their children, Christopher (27) and Ciara (24), to follow their passions.
If succession stories were placed on a spectrum between negative and positive, theirs sits firmly at the top of the positive end.
In 2020, they converted their conventional dairy farm to organic tillage, and this move has been a key to their succession success.
On the day of our visit, we’re sitting in the ‘Man Cave’ (as the sign over the doorway reads), although there are several women in the room and we are assured members of the opposite sex are always welcome.
This is where Barney and Christopher operate the day-to-day business of Ballyhip Organics, and where they like to hang out.
“On a Saturday morning, we’d have four or five customers coming in,” Barney says. “They all come at the one time and we’re all in here drinking tea. It could go on for hours.”
“It hurts the efficiency a bit,” Christopher adds with a laugh.
Making a plan
In some ways, the story of this family farm is familiar: it has been handed down through generations of Barney’s family. In other ways, it is completely unique. Barney and Siobhán first started thinking about succession in 2013, after a neighbour was tragically killed in a farming accident.
“When the funeral was over, it brought me to the realisation: if this could happen [to our neighbour], it could happen to anyone,” Barney recalls. “So, a few months later, we made our will. We discussed our plans with Christopher and Ciara and made sure they were okay with everything. Things haven’t really deviated since.”
At the time, Barney was milking approximately 45 cows. It had been agreed that Christopher would, some day, take on the farm. The only problem? He wasn’t interested in livestock; machinery, instead, captured his attention. As he started to think seriously about the future, he knew his heart wasn’t in dairying.
“I decided I wasn’t going to be milking cows, so we had to figure out what we were going to do,” Christopher says.
A neighbour had recently gone organic and was growing oats for Flahavans. Tillage appealed to Christopher; it removed livestock from the equation and involved plenty of the work he enjoyed. When he brought this to Barney’s attention, his father agreed that organic tillage could work for them, but the idea of being tied in with one processor didn’t sit well.
“When you speak with organic livestock farmers, accessing quality organic meal for their animals is always a bit of a headache,” Christopher says. “So, I suggested we grow crops for organic feed, process it and sell it ourselves. At the time, I thought this would be a relatively simple job, but of course these things never are.”
Though, historically, tillage crops were grown and milled in this part of Cavan, it would have been done long ago, well before farming equipment was mechanised. When Barney and Christopher entered into tillage, they spent a significant amount of time clearing rocks from their fields. As organic conversion took place, they learned to work with the seasons to produce high-quality yields, despite challenging conditions.
“Because we’re not in a real ‘tillage area’ here, we need all of our own machinery and need to do all of our own work,” Christopher says. “We purchased our own dryer and cleaner, we started saving seeds. The real value lies in the fact that, from growing to selling, we set the end price. There is a huge advantage to being able to do that.”
“When we started off, we talked about what we were going to do,” Barney adds.
“We knew we’d never be a huge operation, so instead of focusing on quantity, we focus on quality. We dry, clean and roll our feed to order.”
Organic beef and lamb farmers from as far afield as Mayo and Donegal come to Barney and Christopher for organic meal. Their main crops include barley, peas and oats. This year, they have also planted organic potatoes. They invested in the necessary infrastructure to grow and process their own meal, and now, six years on, they are seeing returns on that investment.
“We break even at a tonne an acre, and we always try to go for two tonnes an acre,” Christopher explains of the crop yield.
“In a good year, we do three tonnes. In a bad year, we’ve had 500kg per acre, in some places. Last year was decent. In 2023, things were shockingly bad.
“The thing with organic tillage is you have to be timely to get the best results,” he continues. “The rain can stop you from working when you’re meant to be working. In 2023, everything that could go wrong went wrong, but on the farming end of things, we actually broke even. This really sold [organics] to me. We weren’t spraying, we didn’t have input costs. We broke even and had that bit of security.”
Trusting the next generation
Some might think moving out of dairy and into organic tillage is high-risk, but Barney knows his children and values their opinions. He knew Christopher’s passion for machinery, when combined with his lifetime of farming experience, would make their business successful. This past year, he officially handed the farm over to Christopher. To him, succession is a natural progression; it has never felt threatening.
“I inherited the farm from my parents when I was young,” he says. “Everything was transferred over, and we all just kept working together as if nothing happened.
“To anyone going up the road, nothing has changed here. I know what I’m doing, the only difference, really, is my name is off the account.”
“There’s very few things you can do by yourself here,” Christopher adds. “You need a minimum of two people, if not three or four, just to keep the machines working. When it comes to our customers, [Dad] knows why they’re coming in or what they might need at certain times of year, because he’s experienced in other farming enterprises, whereas I wouldn’t know as much.”
We knew we’d never be a huge operation, so instead of focusing on quantity, we focus on quality
Ciara and Siobhan both work off-farm, but they like to get stuck in when help is needed. In 2023, Ciara started a TikTok account for the family business (@BallyhipOrganics) and hopes to increase the visibility of the business through social media.
“I saw this [TikTok] trend going around where farmers were making a compilation of videos from throughout the year, and I thought it looked like good craic,” she says. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll make a TikTok, put it up and see how it goes.’ I think, at the time, I got 1,000 or 1,200 views and I thought that was amazing. I kept at it and, at first, the editing and footage was terrible, but we all have to start somewhere and I loved it.
“I kept at it and a few videos got around 70,000 views and I thought we were hitting the big time,” she continues.
“I love being out in the field with my father and brother, or even when we’re home and they’re cleaning and drying the grain. I always try to get at least one or two clips of something funny, like the lads making a face or something going wrong. In organics there are lots of weeds, and the fields don’t always look immaculate, but I don’t cut anything out; that’s the reality.”
Ultimately, the McDonnells’ succession story has been one where everyone involved has felt heard, cared for and understands the importance of their contribution to the farm. And they have a bit of fun, while they’re at it.
“I feel like we’re in the wild west a bit, because there aren’t too many doing what we’re doing,” Christopher says with a smile. “It’s a bit of an adventure.”
See @ballyhiporganics on TikTok.
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