At the sustainable farming conference at the A Taste of West Cork Festival, there was a range of speakers discussing how they are farming to maximise the resources available to them.

The diversity of lands farmed by the speakers ranged from the best and most productive land in west Cork to the heavy lands of Roscommon and indeed the mountains of west Cork.

First to speak was Dr Steve Collins, who is a medicine doctor working worldwide in human nutrition. Steve is also owner of a suckler herd of Dexter cattle, farming near Kealkill, Co Cork.

Steve joined the Organic Farming Scheme in 2012 and, for the last number of years, he has been feeding his Dexter cattle on the wild mountains near Bantry in west Cork.

Existing mountain stone drains were opened and the Dexter cattle have been grazing the peaty mountain grasses. For the last number of years the cattle have been on sprouted barley seed so that 1kg of barley seed produces 7kg of sprouted fodder. During the winter, this sprouted grain is fed out to cattle on the field. After the winter, the mountain soils are tilled and a mix of grass and clover seed is spread across the surface to form very nice quality summer grazing swards for the Dexter cattle.

Steve’s objective is to make the most of the 57ha land base he has and revert land that was growing wild and unproductive into grasslands that are producing quality Dexter beef which he sells direct to customers.

The second speaker was Professor Peter Jones from University College Cork. Peter is a member of staff from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES). He has also been instrumental in setting up the Centre for Organic Horticulture Research (COHR) at the Liss Ard Estate near Skibbereen in West Cork.

Peter explained climate change will result in Ireland being slightly warmer and drier over time, especially in the east. He said: “We could see a gradual change towards more crops like maize and apples and less crops like potatoes that need a lot of water for irrigation.”

His summation was that generally across Europe we will see a trend towards slightly warmer weather.

The third speaker was James Gannon, a former stone sculptor from Dublin who is now farming a traditional Moiled cattle breed for milk and cheese production.

James was suckling his Moiled cattle on heavy land in Roscommon and then one year when his best bull calf weanling only made €750, he began to wonder if there was something more he could do to make more output.

He decided with the help of his wife and daughter to start making cheese and he is currently in the process of making soft cheese from the milk of his Moiled cattle. There are only three breeders of Moiled cattle in Ireland, and there are less than 1,100 Moiled cattle in the world.

James is allowing the cattle graze the grasslands of Roscommon to produce a distinctive soft homemade cheese. He and his family are in the very early stages of developing markets for their cheese and are currently doing market research on where is the best place to sell the product.

Profit must be the focus

The second session of the conference was opened by Harold Kingston from the Irish Farmers Association (IFA). Harold is a Barryroe dairy farmer who is farming in partnership near Courtmacsherry, Co Cork.

He is the chairman of the IFA Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, and is very involved in the IFA’s Smart Farming Initiative (smartfarming.ie).

The goal of this initiative is to reduce farm bills and maximise output through developing and tracking feed, fertilizer, and energy bills as well looking at ways to reduce waste. This is a core component in developing sustainable practices.

The key point from Harold is that profit is and must be the first part of any sustainable system. He said: “If there is no profit in the production system for all involved, then it won’t survive. Financial sustainability is the bedrock of every sustainable system.”

New technologies

Dr Bernadette O Brien is leading a project at Moorepark, where a study is currently being conducted to determine the feasibility of integrating automatic milking with cow grazing.

The system has 70 spring-calved cows of Friesian, Jersey-Friesian cross and Norwegian Red breeds. Bernie outlined that there are new developments which are making labour in agriculture more sustainable.

She said: “We are currently researching new developments which will streamline the management of stock. Simple technologies like grassland measurement and moving fences can be automated and will make the production system more sustainable in labour terms.

The final speaker was Alan Jagoe, a 30-year-old dairy, beef and tillage farmer from Carrigaline, Co Cork. Alan is a former Macra president and is current vice chairperson of a European group of young farmers (CEJA).

Alan works in partnership with his father and brother milking 170 cows. Alan explained there are a number of initiatives ongoing which tackle the issue of sustainability in terms of succession and farming.

He said: “The Macra initiative, led by Austin Finn, is a great initiative that will stimulate people to think about other ways of farming together and developing new templates for farming in the future.

  • Converting unproductive grassland to grow quality grass swards to produce Dexter beef in West Cork and Moiled cheese in Roscommon.
  • Climate change may make Ireland a little warmer over time but our grassland system of agriculture can survive.
  • New technology and managing waste can lead to more sustainable commercial farming in Ireland. New programmes are measuring progress.
  • Separate story There will be a Hoof trimmer Lameness Awareness Day on Thursday 2nd October 2014 from 10 am to 5pm, in Kildalton College, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny with an admission charge of €10 per person. There will be hoof care demonstrations with Pieter Kloosterman, Mobility Scoring with Owen Atkinson and then a lameness seminar.