If you’re planning to buy a dairy farm this year, no doubt you want a good one. Well, here’s a contender: a very commercial set up on a total of 190ac, with a very nice farmhouse, in Co Limerick. This farm is waiting to milk cows efficiently and make money.

Named Clare Farm, the holding is located beside the small village of Kilcolman, 6km from Ardagh and 12km from Newcastle West and the N21 Limerick to Tralee main road. It’s in an area of strong farming, much of it in milk.

The farm has been put on the market by GVM and is going for auction later this month – in lots. The entire is guided at €3m.

The farm is not in one block; instead, it lies in four blocks around Kilcolman. The main block, with the house and fine yard – on over half the total acreage – is on one side of the village. A second small block is on the other side. The other two portions are within about 1km.

This all means that a dairy farmer looking to buy the entire will probably have to compete against other farmers or investors targeting individual lots.

Individual lots

The blocks of land are laid out in large, well-shaped fields and have plenty of frontage on to the public road. The land is of good quality and very well maintained. The pasture is clean, the gates standing, the boundaries secure.

The farmyard and house are a highlight of this property. They are together on the home block of 97.5ac. They are set back almost 300m from the public road, on an elevated site. There is a fine main entrance, with a wide sweep in for lorries, electric gates and a smooth surfaced avenue which is in good condition.

The house and yard are together in the middle of the large home block of land.

The two-storey farmhouse dates back to about 1870. It is very spacious at c3,000 sq ft in area and is in good condition. On the ground floor there is a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Upstairs there are five bedrooms and a second bathroom. There is oil-fired central heating and the windows are double-glazed UPVC. Alongside the house there is a lovely courtyard with exceptionally nice cut-stone buildings, which has been well maintained.

There is a fine main entrance.
the 16-unit milking parlour.

If the house is old and classic, the farmyard is modern and designed for efficiency with everything under one roof. There is a 16-unit herringbone milking parlour. The cubicle house is large, bright and airy – part of it was built in the past 10 years. Feed passages are very accessible.

There is a large silage apron, a calf shed, hay shed, cattle crush and other ancillary sheds. Entitlements to EU direct payments are also included with the sale, with value of approximately €30,000 per anum.

Paddocks

The auction takes place on Wednesday, 29 May at 3pm in the GVM Limerick City auction rooms and also runs online on LSL.

The lots are as follows:

Lot 1 is Clare House on c97.5ac with a central roadway, along with the house and yard. This lot is the main dairying platform, all in paddocks and with piped water.

Lot 2 is c27.35ac in the townland of Dunmoylan, in one field with extensive road frontage. It has a cattle holding pen.

Lot 3 is c52.5ac in the townland of Boughilbo, in two fields separated by the public road. This land includes c5ac of mature woodland.

Lot 4 is c12.4ac on the edge of Kilcolman village, in one field.

Lot 5 is the entire.