‘The problem with farming is you need another source of income to support your family’

This North Cork dairy farmer explains why he works off-farm, why he fears for his children’s future in the sector, how the long winter has left him struggling for motivation, and how and why he has adapted to environmental challenges

Stephen and Brenda Daly’s two boys have just started working on their dairy farm in North Cork. The seven and ten-year-olds have taken to feeding the cows with just as much love and excitement as Stephen had when he was growing up.

But these days, Stephen wonders if a simple love for farming is enough to support your livelihood.

“I’m farming, and doing a full-time job on the side,” he says. “I look at my boys and wonder, will they have to do that when they are my age? Will they have to look for an off-farm income?

“This is the problem with farming — to live off a farm, you either need to have your wife working or you need your own income outside of the farm.”

Between rented and owned land, their farm in Kanturk sprawls over 225ac. After taking over from Stephen’s father five years ago, they have grown a herd of primarily British Holstein Friesians to 130 cows.

Over this time, the couple have introduced sustainability initiatives and modern facilities that have transformed the work they do.

Stephen is also daily operations and commercial manager at the farmer-owned co-op North Cork Creameries and part of the team that makes Ór-real Irish Butter.

Brenda, a trained nurse, now works on the farm full-time and takes care of the day-to-day work.

Stephen says: “A typical day for me starts just after 6am. The cows are brought in; myself and Orla Hayes, our next-door neighbour, milk them in the morning. Once that is done, the calves are fed and the cows are put out to grass.

“I go into my nine to five. If anything has to be done in the meantime like a cow is sick or needs culling, my wife takes care of it.”

In the evening, Brenda and Orla bring the cows in and start milking them. When he’s home from work at 5.30, Stephen finishes up with them.

“When I took over the farm, I was determined that dairy was the most profitable sector,” he says. “Many people advised us to work with dry cattle, where you’re not as committed.

“But I would hear none of it, I wanted to make it big and make it more sustainable by growing the herd.”

The couple have invested in new technology and facilities: they have built accommodation for the cows, put in robotic scrapers, expanded the milking parlour to make the milking process quicker, and added cluster removers and automatic cow feeders.

“My father did a lot of the machinery work himself but I now get a local contractor to take care of slurry and silage,” says Stephen.

‘We invested a lot of money into breeding a better, more efficient cow that would give back more than you give – it’s low-maintenance and lower vet bills’

“We invested a lot of money into genetics, into breeding a better, more efficient cow that would give back more than you give — it’s low-maintenance and lower vet bills.

“All of the automation has left us with free time to work on the farm in the mornings and evenings.

“I believe that when you invest in facilities, streamline the work and make everything more efficient, you can be better at your job because you can be more focused on other things.

“When you have that cocktail of a good fertile cow with good output, and you’re efficient, you’re doing the job far better. It would have taken three hours without these developments; I can now do it in an hour.”

The Daly family have been focused on dairy since the ’80s.

Stephen says: “When quotas were there, the farm was limited. We had 70 cows at the time and that’s all the farm was able to produce. We started with a British Friesian herd, with some crossed with some pedigree Jerseys.

“In the early ’90s, my father and his brother farmed together, then it was split down the middle. My father was left with a smaller farm that we have now. We also grew cereals and veg in the olden days, but now we specialise in dairy.

“From my father’s time, the British Friesian was a highly fertile cow and very easy from a maintenance point of view. But they were a lower-yielding cow, giving lesser volume of milk.

“I put Holstein into the cows and now I’m breeding a cow that produces 500kg of milk solids every year.”

At North Cork Creamery, they have 230 suppliers from around the county.

“We have 90 million litres of milk coming from North Cork farmers,” says Stephen. “Only a small amount of it goes into shelves, most of the milk we produce is exported.

“If you have a litre of milk, 90 pc will be skimmed milk. We make casein out of that, which is exported to South America. The fat side of it is churned to make Ór-real Irish Butter.

“I find the two jobs — the farming and the creamery — work well to

gether.”

The Daly farm is still recovering from the unusually long winter.

“Last year, I had the cows out in February. This year, they didn’t get out until the end of March. Mentally, it’s quite hard to deal with that. It’s a huge relief when you get the cows out to the grass because that’s less work for you on the yard,” says Stephen.

“This year, cows were still inside and breeding season was already upon us. You like to get one milestone met before you move on to the next one. That makes it harder to gather enough motivation to get moving for the next year.

“That’s one thing farmers are struggling with this year — to find the motivation. When the sun shines in Ireland, when the weather is good, it’s like therapy. And there’s not much to keep us going without it.”

Stephen and Brenda have embraced sustainability in an effort to make the business more resilient and to withstand challenges like the weather and new regulations.

“The big one I found huge benefit off of is using low emission slurry spreading,” Stephen says.

“Our contractor follows the paddocks — it means I’m doing little and more often.

“I’m getting better without being out there putting out all my slurry in one day and letting all the grass grow all at the same time.

“I’m getting a more staged growth. My fertiliser usage has come way down too as a result of that. A couple of years ago, I invested in water trucks down at the farm. With more water trucks, there’s less damage. This definitely benefits the environment.”

Having worked with and spoken to other dairy farmers over the years, Stephen hopes more farmers are given the time and resources to make similar changes on their farms in the face of uncertainty.

“When I started farming five years ago, the policies and the message was always grow the herd, produce more milk, more everything. Now it’s reversed. They’re asking us to slow down.

“As a farmer, there’s a lot of uncertainty around the Nitrates Derogation etc. There isn’t really a clear roadmap for farmers.

“Ireland has this beautiful model of a grass-based system, I think it’s the most efficient system in the world. Farmers have been working the land for hundreds of years.

“If the land isn’t healthy and looked after, it won’t give back to you. Like everything, it will only reward you if you are true to the job and give it your 100pc.

“What’s helping the environment is farmers spreading fertilisers efficiently, using low-emission slurry and doing their best. They’re trying to get a better output by stocking, fencing against water courses and doing everything in their power.

“The farm will actually return more to you if you treat it right, and every farmer knows that.

“I think once the roadmap is clear, farmers will adapt.”