I farm: “About 110ac of a small suckler enterprise in Scarriff between myself and my father. My grandfather, he would be with us every evening as well.”
Cows: “The farm consists of 25 suckler cows that are predominantly all Limousin cattle. We have our own stock bull on the farm. This year we’ve carried out a bit of AI because we got into some pure-bred Limousin heifers. I’m going against the grain here but, we find them relatively quiet and easy calving. My father always liked Limousins; they are nice to look at.”
Land: “I suppose our stocking rate isn’t overly high. Some of the land is fairly marginal, it’s on the shore of Lough O’Grady. There are actually three lakes on the farm. The only scheme we are currently part of is ACRES. It suits our farm since there are areas that aren’t manageable for large parts of the year so it suits us to keep machinery off it and as a result, we’re getting paid to do so. It’s a win/win.”
Part-time: “I’ve a great balance between my off-farm job and farming. I’m an Ag Science and Biology teacher in St Flannan’s College, Ennis. It’s a job I love, I try to pass on the knowledge I’ve gained in college and on my own farm, the practical aspects of it.”
Weanlings: “I was at the Scarriff Show last weekend and I thought the market was very good so in the next few weeks, we’ll be going with our bull weanlings. We’ll actually keep the majority of our heifers but we got rid of our bull so we’ll get a new one in the springtime. We like to keep our replacements within the herd.”
This week: “It’s the time of year when we’re tidying up certain parts of the farm in terms of hedge cutting and I started power washing the shed, which is a little later than usual. It’s the time of the year to do it with the silage wrapped up.”
SHARING OPTIONS: