‘When the collapse came I was caught in the middle’
JOHN O’BRIEN, from Lyre East in Co Waterford, got out of finishing livestock for the meat factories two years ago because there was “no margin” for him, and now he is happily “making a profit” selling overwintered stores during the springtime.
“You’d never make a living out of finishing unless you have scale,” says John (57). “The margins are too tight what with the cost of winter fodder, meal and getting rid of the slurry.”
Instead, he now fattens up around 130 stores on his 40acre farm between Cappoquin and Mount Melleray — “I can wave at the monks on a clear day” —and on an additional 60 leased acres nearby. He also continues to transport livestock and pigs to meat factories for local farmers.
“Farmers will always buy stores in the springtime when all that grass is in front of them and that gives me my margin,” he says.
“Sometimes I only get home at midnight on the livestock side of the business but the pigs have to be moved during daylight hours as they go straight to slaughter. The pigs lose weight if they are left in lairages overnight,” he explains.
The transportation side of his farming enterprise was much larger 10 years ago when he employed some 22 staff in a thriving company which went under once the Cappoquin poultry companies dropped into examinership, leaving behind very substantial unpaid invoices.
“I was expanding and when the collapse came, I was caught in the middle. That was a depressing time, especially having to tell the staff who had been with me for years that their jobs were gone. But they have all got new jobs since so that’s good,” he says.
But he is back on the road and back in the fields.
John farms on his own while his wife Ann works in Glanbia. Their three children — Christopher (33), Linda (30) and Shane (28) — are all working off farm.
Christopher, who graduated in mechanical engineering is “managing director and a bit of a shareholder” of a haulage company in Australia — a job John likes to describe as “walking around with a briefcase”. Shane works with his brother in the fleet maintenance section of the company. Linda works as a specialist nurse with the HSE.
John’s main off-farm interest revolves around vintage tractors and vintage-tractor events raising money mainly for local charities dealing with issues like dementia, cancer and depression.
He is behind next month’s Mount Melleray Community Silage weekend where local women will draw the silage from 100 acres around the abbey. “The women competing don’t have to use vintage tractors in this events. They can use whatever machine they feel comfortable with,” John emphases.
And the monks on the hill will be playing an important role in the next family celebration when the “man with the briefcase” — Christopher — will get married to his Australian teacher girlfriend, Amy, at the end of September.
It has been 60 years since the last wedding was celebrated by the monks at Mount Melleray and these nuptials are sure to be some day out.
Brother Shane is return- ing for the wedding with his Limerick-born girlfriend Vicky.
John is expecting the pair to stay put after the celebrations — no doubt to help with the stores and the transport business.