There is mounting speculation that one of the country’s largest dairy farms is diversifying into solar energy.

Greenhills Dairies at Killeagh in east Cork is being linked with the development of a major solar project in the area.

The family farm, which boasts one of the biggest cow herds in the country, is run by Tom and Elizabeth Browne and their son, Simon.

When asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if some of the family’s lands at Killeagh were being converted into a solar farm, Simon Browne declined to comment.

The Danish-based renewable energy firm Orsted has been linked locally with the project. However, the company had not responded to queries from this newspaper as we went to press.

The Browne family farm in excess of 1,100ac – which is a mix of owned and rented land – milk close to 1,000 cows. They supply Dairygold.

Tom Browne had one of the largest milk quotas in the State before they were abolished. He was also a major grower of sugar beet before the industry was wound up in 2005-2006.

Meanwhile, the “rampant growth” in solar farms in east Cork was raised in the Dáil this week by local Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor.

Deputy O’Connor said the developments ranged in size from 450ac to 1,200ac, and claimed that one project “will potentially remove the largest single cow herd in the country”.