As a teenager, Charlotte Monahan decided that she wanted to achieve three things in life: To become a vet, marry a farmer… and win the Irish greyhound derby.

“The third I’m still waiting for,” laughs Charlotte, as we sit in the kitchen of Clochglas Organic Farm, close to Kinnegad, where she lives with husband Ger, their four children, plus four dogs and a cat.

Not one to rest on her laurels, however, Charlotte has added a few more goals to the list; namely driving sales of the family’s beef and lamb, having completely converted their farm to organic in 2015. And while it’s a struggle to start a farm-to-fork food brand, it’s clear that this slight, softly spoken woman has plenty of steel when it comes to following a dream.

Following your dream

Originally from Athy, Co Kildare, Charlotte did not actually grow up on a farm. Instead, her parents, Tim and Anne Flood, ran a fruit and veg shop in the town centre before they both diversified – her mother into floristry, her father into furniture and flooring.

As a hobby, however, her father kept greyhounds, which Charlotte was immersed in from an early age, and through which she was first exposed to the world of veterinary.

Charlotte Monahan with her husband Ger at Clochglas farm. \ Yvonne Cole Dupuid

“I always used to think: ‘These vet are Gods… I want to be like that!’” she laughs, but explains that having never been “an academic”, she had to work very hard to try to get the points for university.

“And I didn’t,” she continues. “I was absolutely devastated.”

Undeterred, however, Charlotte studied zoology at UCD, where she discovered there was still an opportunity to follow her dream

“I found I could go to the UK to do veterinary,” she explains. “They told me if I got an upper second-class honours degree then they may consider offering me a place, so I worked really hard and I got accepted to three colleges.”

Charlotte eventually chose Glasgow, achieving ambition number one on her list. While she had been preparing for her interviews, however, she realised that she needed practical experience, and so began paying regular visits to the farm of a college friend from Co Meath at weekends.

“I just loved it; they couldn’t keep me from outside,” recalls Charlotte of her early visits to the Monahan family in Clochglas.

Which actually brings us to ambition number two…

“Her brother then and meself struck up a relationship,” smiles Charlotte of meeting Ger – though for the five years that she was studying in Glasgow, it was very much a long-distance relationship.

“We’d only see each other once a term,” recalls Charlotte. “I didn’t even have a mobile phone that time.”

Going organic

Graduating in 2000, Charlotte returned to Ireland, where she specialised in small animals – from cats and dogs to snakes and bearded dragons – working in a number of clinics, including Moss Veterinary Hospital for 14 years.

At the same time, she and Ger married and started their family, with Kevin, followed by Cathal, Eoghan and Aoibheann. While Charlotte continued to work part-time when the children were small, last year she made the decision to leave her job in Naas to work closer to home, and now splits her time between a mixed practice in Kinnegad, as well as working in Moyvalley Meats in nearby Broadford as an inspector.

But Charlotte has also thrown herself into farm life since Ger took over from his late father Kevin, who had started a dairy farm from scratch, before progressing into beef and sheep.

Remembering Kevin as “a real character, so full of wit, charm and warmth”, Charlotte explains that when she first started to visit Clochglas, her future father-in-law would always cook one of his own lambs for dinner.

“I had never tasted lamb before because we would have never have had it at home,” she explains, “I just thought: ‘This is fabulous.’”

In the early years of their marriage, the couple were rearing and selling their animals conventionally on the 72-ha lowland farm, but Charlotte reflects now that they were “just plodding”.

“I thought you could make more out of it,” she continues of their decision in 2013 to convert to organic with a view to one day selling direct to customers, so that other people could enjoy the same experience Charlotte did all those years before.

In one sense, Charlotte says the transition was easy as the farm did not use fertiliser on the land, minimal concentrates were fed and the use of medicines/oral dosing was on a need basis.

That said, she did a lot of work in order to become certified, starting with an introductory course in Ballyhaise Agricultural College, before applying to the Department of Agriculture for the organic farming scheme.

One of Charlotte's four dogs at Clochglas farm. \ Yvonne Cole Dupuis

“You have to do a farm plan, farm sketches. I had to do a future business plan – there was a lot of paperwork,” she says, though admits that her college and veterinary experience stood her in good stead.

The switch also required on-farm investment to convert an old hay barn into a deep straw bedded shed, along with other farm buildings, as well as focusing on “quicker maturing breeds”, such as Angus, in their 70-strong herd, and reducing the stocking rate of sheep – mostly Suffolk x Texels – from about 250 to 100.

”If you have low stocking numbers, you have lower parasites on the land, so less need to treat with medications and you have more grass for both cattle and the sheep,” explains Charlotte – though the next challenge was to make their reduced flock more prolific.

“We introduced the Belclare ram,” she continues, “so then we started getting triplets, quads. So despite the fact we lessened the flock, we actually were getting more lambs because we introduced the Belclare, so that has worked really well.”

Finding a market

Receiving their organic symbol from the Organic Trust in 2015, the couple were “elated”. Then came the next challenge: finding a market.

“So a lot of ringing, a lot of trying to convince guys,” says Charlotte – though she eventually struck lucky with Slaney Foods International in Bunclody, Co Wexford, purchasing her beef. And while prices do fluctuate, Charlotte says that they have seen a return since going organic.

“You definitely are kind of getting 60c to 70c a kilo more for your animal,” she says, explaining that as they have low inputs, they do reap the rewards.

Finding a buyer for the lamb was more challenging, with the couple initially having to sell conventionally. Since linking in with the Offaly Producer Group, however, they now sell organically to Irish Country Meats in Camolin, Co Wexford.

“You were getting 15% more for your organic lamb than you were for the conventional,” says Charlotte, noting again that as most of the lambs are fed off grass, inputs are lower.

And now they are ready to take the next step.

“I would love to have it go directly from farm to fork,” says Charlotte of her decision to apply to the Environmental Health Authority for a licence to sell the beef and lamb direct as a “fresh frozen” product, having converted a farm shed to do so, at a cost of about €3,000.

Having dipped a toe in last year, this season Charlotte will be working with Troy’s Meats in Tyrellspass – an organically approved abbatoir – who will slaughter the animal, butcher it into requested cuts and freeze and deliver it to Charlotte to sell to private customers.

Troy’s will also deliver whole carcasses on Charlotte’s behalf to local butcher Seamus Bracken in Mullingar – though for now this will have to be sold conventionally due to the criteria involved, ie the meat would either have to be butchered, individually packed and labelled in Troy’s and delivered or, alternatively, Bracken’s would have to apply for a licence to butcher organically.

For Charlotte, this is probably the biggest challenge when trying to build your own organic farm brand.

“The hardest thing is to have everything done by the books,” she says, but she’s determined to push forward and hopefully start supplying local restaurants as well in the new season.

“I love cooking, I love food and, I don’t know, just to have our beef, our lamb, being served up in a restaurant with our name on it – that would mean everything,” she says.

Team effort

While Charlotte has led the way in building the Clochglas brand, however, she credits Ger’s skills as a farmer in producing a product they can be proud of.

“When I came here first, I thought all the sheep looked the same, but he could tell you: ‘That ewe had twins last year and she wasn’t a good milker.’ I found him incredible,” she says.

“The care, husbandry, everything, and the same with the cows… he just has a flair for it, whereas I had to learn all that.”

And it’s all hands on deck with lambing in full swing until mid-April, with product then available from July onwards.

“It’s busy for the duration but it’s doable,” smiles Charlotte, who is full of plans for the season ahead.

“It’s just in me,” she admits. “I always have to be on the go, I always have to be thinking of something to do, my mind is on overdrive all the time.’”

Which brings us to that third ambition… that derby winner?

“This will never happen,” laughs Charlotte, then adds, quick as a flash: “I might get a greyhound again!”

For further information on buying Clochglas organic lamb and beef, call 087-1833-343 or email charlottemonahan@hotmail.com

A day in the life during lambing

Up at 6am to make up bottles for the lambs that have to be fed. I check all the ewes in the lambing shed, those lambed already and any that are having difficulty lambing.

I walk the dogs – Fionn, Jack, Geoff and June – and feed the cat, Bruce. Back indoors to shower and dress, prepare dinner and make school lunches. I wake the children for school and make breakfast before meeting the school bus.

Ger will be out feeding the cattle and checking any cows near calving. He will feed the lambs and check ewes during the day and check ewes/lambs at grass. He will meet the children from the bus, give them dinner and start homework. The children will help on the farm and show a great interest.

On Monday, Tuesday and Friday, I’m in the clinic from 9.15-11am and depending on what’s booked in, from 2.30-6pm for consultations and routine surgical procedures. From Monday to Friday I have a meat inspection shift in Moyvalley Meats Broadford from 11.30-2pm.

Every evening, either myself or Ger (or both) will take the children to rugby, football or soccer training and Aoibheann could have Irish dancing, piano or gymnastics. I help coach the Edenderry under-12s rugby team and the under-12s Ballinabrackey football team, so I try to attend all training sessions and their matches.

Then it’s finish homework, tea and bed for the children, before heading outside again to walk and feed the dogs and Bruce, feed the lambs and check the ewes.

Then inside to put on a wash, organise uniforms and tidy the kitchen, which is usually in absolute mayhem!

Then finally it’s bedtime, although Ger will check the ewes around 3.30am.

Then the day starts again.

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