2024 was a challenging year for farm buildings.

The first half of the year weather-wise did not lend itself to ideal working conditions for digging tanks or pouring concrete, while the price of concrete seemed to rise higher than grass growth did in the same period.

However, some super building work has been completed all the same and the Irish Farmers Journal has been lucky enough to feature some of these builds.

McGrane’s calf shed

The McGrane family found that housing for youngstock was under pressure, with most calves born of the 520 autumn- and spring-calving herd staying on farm.

A new calf shed was constructed and completed earlier this year, with wet and dry areas, JFC Evolution calf feeders and an outdoor lounge area for calves as well.

Maguire’s pedigree palace

Niall and Simone Maguire's pedigree palace will serve the up and coming herd well in the future.

Simone and Niall Maguire seemed to do the impossible; build a TAMS-spec shed at a reasonable cost.

Kitted out with a slatted tank, deep peat lie-backs, creep area and calving pens, this has everything a pedigree and high-end commercial herd like the Maguires need.

Keane’s greenfield dairy

The new dairy unit built by John Keane consists of 96 cubicles with slurry storage facilities, plus a 20-unit Pearson parlour and handling unit.

New dairy units are becoming less common across the country and are even more rare in the west of Ireland.

One man bucking the trend is John Keane, Midfield, Co Mayo.

A builder by trade, John completed much of the work himself on the new seven-bay cubicle shed with slurry and soiled water storage and a 20-unit Pearson parlour adjoined to it.

The finish of the build, complete with its Heatguard roof, is second to none.

Fitzgerald’s future-proof calf house

The impressive new build calf shed on the Fitzgerald farm has capacity for over 170 calves and was built at a cost of €155,630 plus VAT.

John, Shane and Kate Fitgerald are very much forward-thinking people.

A lot of development has been done on the farm in recent years to streamline work, but calves had been taking up a huge part of the day in spring.

Coupled with older housing that wasn’t really fit for purpose and the likelihood that calves would have to be held on farm longer in the future, this called for a new bespoke calf house to be built.

The result was a fine five-bay calf shed capable of holding up to 170 calves with a kitchen area and three-station JFC Evolution S4 calf feeder.

Lynch’s wall

Pat Lynch alongside his 444m long restored dry stone wall which took approximately 3,000 hours to complete.

We often try to put a price on the cost of projects that we feature, but how can you put a price on the skill it takes to rebuild a dry-stone wall solo over the course of four years?

Pat Lynch estimates to have spent 3,000 hours repairing the 444m of stone wall on his drystock farm in Eyrecourt, Co Galway, following his retirement from Bord na Mona in 2019.