Saturday is the ‘big job’ day on the farm

Brendan Leonard farms alongside his sons Brian and Darren in Drimina, Tourlestrane, just a few miles outside Tubbercurry in south Sligo. The farm extends to almost 85 acres and they currently run a 20-cow suckler herd.

The farm work is very much a team effort, with everyone pitching in whenever available throughout the week, as all have off-farm commitments.

Brian, 29, is away Monday to Friday as he works for Galway County Council as an Atlantic economic corridor officer.

This is following on from his PhD work as a Teagasc Walsh Fellow in Athenry, where he researched farm succession and inheritance and graduated last June.

Younger brother Darren, 22, is in his final year in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) studying agriculture and environmental management. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, he has been home full-time for the last month and his final exams have been replaced with a number of essays and assignments.

“It has been great as far as the farm goes,” Brendan says. “Darren has been around for the end of calving and it really has taken the pressure off.”

There is still a small matter of a final-year project to submit in the coming week and Darren tells me that the discussion could do with a bit of work – a job for a rainy day perhaps!

GAA

Aside from college and farming, Darren is also a keen footballer and has already amassed four senior county championship medals with Tourlestrane GAA club.

Farming and football is ingrained in the DNA of this family. Brendan is chair of the Sligo GAA county board while being a past chair of Tourlestrane GAA club during a period in which the club won five senior county championship titles.

“It keeps me busy. There are always meetings or phone calls to attend to. In normal times, I would be away a few evenings a week.”

Farming wasn’t always plan A for Brendan

Brendan also works as a health and safety officer on industrial projects, mostly wind farm constructions.

Farming wasn’t always plan A for Brendan. Having completed an engineering degree in Sligo IT in 1980, he planned to work in that area.

However, his father became unwell and Brendan was required to help keep things going at home on the then-dairy farm.

Brendan continued to milk cows in his own right until 2002 when a number of factors contributed to the end of milking cows.

Farm accident

In summer 2001, Brendan was involved in a farm accident when he fell and suffered a serious head injury. He was rushed to Beaumount Hospital with a fractured skull.

It was an anxious few days for the family when they didn’t know whether Brendan was going to be OK or not.

Although the lads were quite young when it happened, it has left a lasting impression on all the family

Luckily, he pulled through and lives to tell the tale. He spent 10 days in Dublin prior to being moved to Sligo General to continue his convalescence.

Although the lads were quite young when it happened, it has left a lasting impression on all the family.

“You do look at jobs differently. Safety has to be considered with every job,” Brian says.

Most Saturdays we are all here, unless there is a game of football on

“Although there are three of us farming, we can often be working alone at different times – you cannot afford to rush jobs or be careless with livestock or machinery.”

That being said, the family tries to plan the big jobs for the weekend when everyone is around.

“Saturday is the ‘big job’ day on the farm. If there is anything to do with the cattle such as dosing, we will do it at the weekend.

“Most Saturdays we are all here, unless there is a game of football on – in that case Sunday evening can be quite busy!” Brendan jokes.

Farming system

The cows are all spring-calving and this is something they have been working on over the last few years to tighten up.

Coming from a dairy background Brendan has always reared a few beef-cross heifer calves each year to bring in as replacements to the herd. However, Darren has plans to change the approach in the coming years.

“I would like us to start breeding our own replacements. We have plenty of milk in the herd coming from the dairy side and I don’t want to go too far away from that, but I think we could go to second-and even third-cross cows without any issues. We actually have too much milk in some cows just after calving. We can mix and match to get the right bull with each cow thanks to AI.”

We are using mostly Limousin on cows we hope to breed replacements from and Charolais on the rest

“We are 100% AI here,” says Brendan. “My brother Tommy is an AI man for Progressive Genetics and our next-door neighbour Graham Gallagher works with Dovea, so we are never short of a man to bull a cow.”

Darren explains: “We are using mostly Limousin on cows we hope to breed replacements from and Charolais on the rest. Currently, we sell everything as weanlings, either in Ballina or Balla marts. If we can get good weanlings coming close to €1,000, I don’t see any benefit of keeping them any longer.

“We might start looking at keeping some of the lighter heifers for a bit longer.

“If we are only going to get €700 to €750 for a weanling, I think there is more in them keeping them longer – they have the genetics to perform.”

Sheep

Darren also has ambitions of starting lambing ewes in the coming years. “We know we can carry more stock on the farm.

Sheep would work well, as this ground is usually too wet to graze with the cows later in the year. We might start with 20 to 25 and see how we get on with them. If it goes well, we can build it up from there.”

Suckler farming in the future

I asked the family if they see a future in suckler farming, to which they all had their own opinion.

Brendan: “For me, suckling is only a runner as long as we have support payments. Suckler farmers need to be supported if people are to continue in the future. We are in BDGP, BEAM, BEEP and we have applied for BEEP2 – you cannot afford not to be in these schemes.”

Brian: “I think suckler farming will always be a part-time job for us here and that suits us perfectly. There’s not enough out of it for any one of us to be full-time. We enjoy doing it and seeing things being improved every year so that’s what keeps us at it.”

Darren: “I see a future in suckling. If you have the quality you will always sell. Hopefully I will get a job locally once I finish college and then I will be able to continue to build the herd and start a ewe flock in the coming years.”

The Leonard family