Dairy potential at €1.5m farm in north Cork
An elevated holding of 215ac near Liscarroll has been farmed for tillage, says
ONE of the largest farms to come on the market in Munster so far this year is a 215ac holding at Ballybane near Liscarroll in north Cork. The residential property is for sale by private treaty with a guide price of €1.5m or €6,500/ac. The selling agents currently have an offer of €1.4m on the table.
Given the awful weather last week, I was lucky to choose a fine evening to go and view this farm located in Ballybane, a townsland 6km from Liscarroll lying to the west of the N20 Cork to Limerick Road. The farm is 16km from Buttevant and about 11km from Kanturk.
A long avenue through the outer fields leads to the house and yard located on an expanse of elevated ground that affords great views over a wide area. The land is all in one block with the house and yards right at the centre. About 60ac of the ground is in stubble with 155ac in grass.
The stubble fields are near the house with the signs of the harvesting still visible underfoot. The area would not be your typical tillage country but its elevation gives it greater drainage potential than some of the more low-lying land in the general area. The holding has good road frontage along the south-western boundary.
The grassland has the hallmark of decent grazing ground and according to selling agent Mike Brady, the entire farm could lend itself to dairying as the large fields could be easily paddocked and the long avenue would create the spine of an internal roadways system.
The farmyard is a mixed unit of modern and dated facilities. At the heart of the place is a complex of cubicle sheds with the infrastructure for automatic scrapers. It includes two five-column, round roofed sheds with cubicles and two five-column lean-tos also with cubicles containing total accommodation for about 200 animals. To the front of these is a feed passage.
A smaller yard has some low-profile cubicle sheds along with a relatively modern lean-to for machinery or fodder storage. There is a range of old stone buildings, a couple of silage pits and a large slurry lagoon. There is also a substantial machinery shed measuring 19.2m x 24.4m with double doors and a high roof.
Bungalow
The house is a single storey bungalow with four bedrooms, a box room, a bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen.
While the land is inclined to be heavier than regular tillage ground, the holding has been well farmed.
According to Mike Brady, the dairy potential of the property could be easily realised. “It needs a milking parlour and everything else is in place — the land, the housing and the slurry facilities. It would be ideal as a standalone operation or as an addition to an existing enterprise. The place is being sold with the goodwill of the owner who wants to move on.”
Liam Murphy auctioneers, Kanturk and The Brady Group, Cork are joint agents in the sale.