All-round talent reaping the rewards of a lifelong passion for farming
A prize-winning showjumper, Aisling Osborne won her first ploughing title this year, and the recent ag science graduate is throwing herself into her work on the family tillage and suckler farm
Ailish Osborne is a young woman of many talents: match ploughing champion, Dublin Horse Show winner and multifaceted farmer. “I can do everything. I can cut corn, spray, drive tractors, draw corn to the merchant. I don’t mind doing anything really,” says the 22-year-old, whose family have a 150-acre tillage and suckler farm beside Kilkea Castle in Co Kildare.
“I grew up with farming around me and I was always out with Daddy. Farming was always second nature to me. I was on tractors and feeding cattle all my life so it came naturally and you couldn’t really get away from it.”
Ailish also excelled in the dairy parlour on a college placement in New Zealand last year, milking on a 900-cow farm, but she has decided to stick with what she knows best, having learnt from her parents Eugene and Mary.
“I wouldn’t get into dairy at home because of the expense and I would like to always take my holidays and things so the tillage works best for me,” says Ailish, who recently completed her Covid-hit final year of an Ag science degree at Waterford IT through online exams.
The home farm consists of winter cereals with wheat and barley sown on 70 acres; they also finish around 60 heifers and bullocks annually.
Spring barley was sown this year for the first time in Ailish’s memory because of the volume of rain in the autumn.
With an annual yield of approximately 4.5 tonne/acre for winter wheat and 4 tonne/acre for winter barley, Ailish believes figures for all crops will be down this year due to the recent drought.
Usually the harvesting of winter cereals wouldn’t begin until July 25 but the Osbornes expect it to be earlier this year.
“Crops are getting burnt in so I think cutting will begin around July 10,” says Ailish.
“We have 40 acres of winter barley, 30 acres of winter wheat and 13 acres of spring barley. We grow all cereal crops, mostly oats, wheat and barley.
“Nearly all that we sow would be winter crops but this year we had to sow some spring because it was too late to sow the winter with rain delaying our sowing season.
“The grain may have shrivelled on the winter barley by the time it’s harvested so I expect the weight to be down slightly. Last year, we had the best of everything; we had heat and rain consistently.”
The family farm keeps its machinery up to date with a purchase every season.
“Everything is done by ourselves. We have all New Holland tractors and combines. We try to keep everything fairly fresh. If anything gets old we would update it and we try to purchase something every year.
“This year we purchased a new sprayer. You’d never be left without work between helping my uncles and keeping operations going well here at home.”
Although she notes that there is no money currently in beef, Ailish feels strongly that livestock is an important part of the farm.
“Livestock really brings life to the place and particularly in the winter when the tillage isn’t very demanding. We can feed cattle during the winter season and that’s enjoyable.”
The suckler herd is predominately
Limousin and Charolais, and they recently bought some Salers calves.
Pedigree Angus heifers and bulls are sold from the yard every year, mainly going to dairy farms in the south-east.
“Over the past number of years we have increased our stocking rate and increased our cattle numbers,” says Ailish, who feels they can continue to grow their herd if they improve their grassland management.
At WIT, Ailish was taught about the benefits of cover crops, and she is eager implement these lessons in the crop rotation on her home farm.
Ailish would love to breed horses on the farm and continue her passion for show jumping.
In 2017, she won the Members’
‘I wouldn’t get into dairy at home because of the expense
and I like to be able to take my holidays, so the tillage works best for me’