My Week: ‘We’re a drystock farm with some tillage, but I also hope to be milking 80 cows this year’

John Kealy from Laois is diversifying into dairying, but he explains why he’s not going to put all his eggs into one basket

Margaret Donnelly Twitter Email

March 16 2021 02:00 AM

John Kealy has never milked a cow in his life, but that’s not going to stop the Borris-in-Ossory farmer diversifying his farm to include a dairy operation.

“I will have to learn and that’s that,” he says. “That’s my biggest fear, looking after the cows properly. But I like the idea of having a mix and variety of work.

“Maybe if myself and Geraldine didn’t have five children, I’d stay as I am, finishing cattle and having tillage.”

John and Geraldine Kealy with their family, Emma with Belle; Áine, Sarah, Séan and Laura Mae

The children range from 19 down to six, and John is hopeful they will become involved in the dairy operation over the coming years.

“The two youngest have been here every day as we’ve been building the parlour, and another daughter helps out milking for my brother-in-law,” John says.

“We’re a drystock farm with some tillage and I hope to be milking 80 cows or so this year.”

With a couple of hundred acres to farm, John says he has the capacity to milk 180 cows, but dairying on that scale is not for him.

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“I took over the home farm when I got married and it’s been all drystock, and tillage,” he says. “I hope to hold on to some of the drystock and tillage. I’m not aiming to be milking 500 or 600 cows.

“I have a neighbour and two nephews who will help with the milking when needed. I am not taking on the cows on my own — I want a life too.

Quotas

“The decision is not about money and yet in ways it is about money.

“When quotas went in 2015 I said I would look at dairying after two or three years, and last September I visited a farmer who had started [in dairy] 12 or 13 years ago.

“I said I’d go look at his set-up and when I went down there it was staring me in the face.

“Buying and fattening cattle is what I do and it has been good to me. If you don’t make money, don’t blame the factory.

“The children can’t come out and work with big cattle, but hopefully they will be able to help milk and mind calves.”

John started work on the parlour last November. “We’re putting in a second-hand milking machine. I felt if I didn’t start with a budget, there might be no budget at all and it could go as high as you like.

John with his milking parlour under construction

“The build had gone smoothly and anyone I needed came on time and there was no real hassle. We’re more or less finished at this point and have a 12-unit that can go to 14.

“I had been looking at it and when I was talking to others, I was trying to figure out what end of the shed would work to convert, but my brother-in-law spotted that the other end of the shed to what I was looking at would work better.

Reseeding

“The design means the slats are now the collecting yard and they can go into shed or into field when they go through the parlour.”

The grassland has been reseeded in recent years, but John still has work to do with fencing and the water supply before any cows arrive.

Meet the Highland calves born during lockdown on this Donegal farm

“There isn’t a cow in the place at the moment. I’m working on it, but I don’t want to get them until I can take them.

“It would be great to buy a herd of cows as opposed to heifers, as a herd of cows would teach me a lot. We’ll be ready by April 1, but I don’t want to put a deadline on things.

"Once the power is installed I can go looking at cows to buy. I’ve done a bit of looking and was in the mart last week, but that’s only speculation and a chance to see what I’d like.”

John's milking parlour and dairy under construction

His brother-in-law has been good with advice and John says it’s very practical stuff as he’s been in cows all his life.

His own motto is to “keep it simple. In 12 months I will be finishing cattle in January, February that I bought in the spring. I will have 30 or 40 acres of corn, I will be milking 70-80 cows, and we may have some sheep too.

“I really like sheep and may get back into them. That’s the idea, to have a mix on the farm. There’s a lot of hardship with lambs, but you get that with cows too.

“But it will offer the children a real variety if they are interested in farming. Even if they only come out to the farm once a month, it’s good for them.”

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