I farm: “600 acres along with my brother, David, and my father, John. Around one-third of the land is owned and the rest is rented. The rented land is anything from four miles to eight miles from the home farm.”
Stock: “We have 320 milkers, mainly pure Holstein, 200 followers and the rest beef. We milk all year round, supplying LacPatrick. Price at the minute is not bad, we can manage with it, at 29p/l plus the winter bonus.”
Fragmentation: “We keep the dairy cows at home and we keep beef cattle on the rented land. We also use rented land to cut silage, rear heifers and zero-graze during the summer months.”
Expansion: “We’ve been expanding since I left school in 2004. We put up sheds around 10 years ago. In 2003 we put in a 16-aside parlour and in 2012 we put in a 24-aside. In 2015 we made the parlour a lot more computerised.”
Family farm: “It takes all three of us to milk, two in the parlour and one shifting cows. We get some weekend help in if we need an odd evening off.”
TB: “We’ve been locked up since July 2016, but we were only open for four months before that, so it’s been an issue for us most of the time. We were just testing this week and we have one reactor already, so nothing is going to change.”
Fodder: “Because of the TB, we almost planned to have more animals to feed, so fodder is not an issue. We bought in 250t of soya hulls and we have enough silage of our own.”
Slurry: “I’ve spread some slurry during the closed season under the NI reasonable excuse rule. I also export slurry to other farms, to my cousin and neighbour.”
Quotable quote: “When they see us expanding, some people might call us addicted or greedy. My argument to that is that I’m married with three children, my brother is married with two children and there’s the home place too. We have three families to support.”
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My farming week: James and Daniel Gilmartin, Gortnaleck, Co Sligo
My farming week: David Carson, Garrison, Co Fermanagh
I farm: “600 acres along with my brother, David, and my father, John. Around one-third of the land is owned and the rest is rented. The rented land is anything from four miles to eight miles from the home farm.”
Stock: “We have 320 milkers, mainly pure Holstein, 200 followers and the rest beef. We milk all year round, supplying LacPatrick. Price at the minute is not bad, we can manage with it, at 29p/l plus the winter bonus.”
Fragmentation: “We keep the dairy cows at home and we keep beef cattle on the rented land. We also use rented land to cut silage, rear heifers and zero-graze during the summer months.”
Expansion: “We’ve been expanding since I left school in 2004. We put up sheds around 10 years ago. In 2003 we put in a 16-aside parlour and in 2012 we put in a 24-aside. In 2015 we made the parlour a lot more computerised.”
Family farm: “It takes all three of us to milk, two in the parlour and one shifting cows. We get some weekend help in if we need an odd evening off.”
TB: “We’ve been locked up since July 2016, but we were only open for four months before that, so it’s been an issue for us most of the time. We were just testing this week and we have one reactor already, so nothing is going to change.”
Fodder: “Because of the TB, we almost planned to have more animals to feed, so fodder is not an issue. We bought in 250t of soya hulls and we have enough silage of our own.”
Slurry: “I’ve spread some slurry during the closed season under the NI reasonable excuse rule. I also export slurry to other farms, to my cousin and neighbour.”
Quotable quote: “When they see us expanding, some people might call us addicted or greedy. My argument to that is that I’m married with three children, my brother is married with two children and there’s the home place too. We have three families to support.”
Read more
My farming week: James and Daniel Gilmartin, Gortnaleck, Co Sligo
My farming week: David Carson, Garrison, Co Fermanagh
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