'When I was a kid, I had to catch the blood from the pig for black pudding'

I’m farming sucklers and I have forestry in Ballaghmore, Co Laois, but I’m originally from Co Tipperary. We were in Dublin beforehand but moved because land came our way.

I was working for the Department of Agriculture as an agricultural officer. We worked on drawing up the original cattle grading system.

I went pretty much straight into the Department from agricultural college and worked there until 1977. I then got an offer to work in a local meat factory and I worked there until 1982, when I decided to go farming full time.

I made this decision because I started work in the Department at 8am in the morning. I would come home and fill a load of beet and go off to the Thurles sugar factory.

This meant returning home at 12.30am, depending on the length of the queue at the factory, go to bed and be up early to do it all again.

My wife Margaret got a job nursing locally so I farmed and did the school runs.

Forestry

With the forestry at the moment we’re at the stage of clear felling and replanting. When you are clear felling, you have to prepare it for replanting.

We cut about 10ac at a time every few years – or whenever money is required.

The 100ac we have in forestry was wet and full of rushes. I tried different things with it, but all you’d get is a few months summer grazing out of it.

I saw that there wasn’t much money being made out of it and I thought that there had to be something better to do with it.

So I looked at the forestry and went ahead with it. I get a local fellow that has been planting all his life to plant for me. I like planting the trees so I join him for that bit.

I became involved with the IFA when there was a factory blockade when Tom Parlon was president. The local branch in Borris-on-Ossory went from about 40 members up to 130 members after the blockade.

I was chair of the forestry committee for a while. That was a great experience. I got to visit countries all around Europe and got to know the workings of Brussels.

I still have friends that I met from that time, especially from Brussels

We organised trips to Slovenia, Estonia and Wales. They were educational tours to see how things were done in other countries. I still have friends that I met from that time, especially from Brussels.

Mobile farmer

Agri Aware was looking for someone to do a mobile farm. In 2017, I got a call one day asking did I know of anybody interested. I said that I would try it for a day or two and see how we got on.

I was finished as IFA county chair in Laois, so that’s why I said I’d give it a go. I now bring a host of farm animals to schools and shows around the country.

We had a very busy year last year. I get a great buzz from the kids’ reactions to the animals and it gives them the opportunity to be up close with the animals and birds, which some may not have had the chance to do before.

The questions they ask you about farming are gas. They could ask you anything from, “How do you feed them?” to “What happens to them?” I’m always truthful.

The calendar for the mobile farm is fairly good. I know to prepare a couple of days beforehand that I’m going to be gone for a day

Kids today have had different experiences growing up to what I had. When I was a kid, I had to catch the blood from the pig for the black pudding. Many kids did that.

The calendar for the mobile farm is fairly good. I know to prepare a couple of days beforehand that I’m going to be gone for a day.

With sucklers, I can arrange to feed the cows at night and when the schools are finished at about 2.30pm, then I’m finished. You head home and make sure you catch up on what needs to be done.

Pig in the city

A couple of years ago, at the Waterford Harvest Festival, we were loading the animals into the trailer and one of the pigs escaped.

He ran down around the docks and everybody chased him. He did a tour of the city and then came back up to where he escaped from, somebody dived on him and caught him by the back leg.

All I was afraid of was that somebody might be knocked down. The following evening I was loading them up for home and I made sure that they wouldn’t escape this time.

This guy came over to me and said, “Hey would you ever let out that pig again? I’m 40 years a taxi driver here and I never saw such fun as there was yesterday evening”. I didn’t oblige him.

Another time the mobile farm was down at the Black Bull in Coolderry, Co Offaly. We had set up and they were calling for entries for the dog show.

We got a young fella to take the Black Whitehead calf into the ring. He came back with a big red rosette for the biggest dog.

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