My name is Orla Hogan, and I live on our farm in Tuamgraney, Co. Clare, with my husband Rossa and our four sons.
Along with cattle farming we also work as sileage contractors, providing local farmers with top quality silage. We also do slurry and have a fleet of trucks.
Originally, we had suckler cows but a few years ago we switched and now we buy and rear calves. Our calves come from my husband’s cousin, who lives just three kilometres down the road from us. I think that this is a more sustainable way of farming, I feel that most dairy farmers have a good dairy beef bull now and that means that we can produce high-quality beef from a dairy farm.
We have a very pretty ringfort on one of our fields, it is untouched, it’s never been tampered with, so its lovely to maintain a piece of history. We also have a lot of wildlife, we often see cranes, foxes, swallows, it’s a great way to work, to spend your day out in nature.
I like the Irish Hereford because they are docile and so easy to manage, they are hardy and they thrive on all types of ground, you can put them anywhere and they’ll do well.
We run a small sheep flock on the farm as well and for grazing we rotate the cattle and sheep. I find that the sheep are a great way to clear off a field and their manure helps to fertilize the land. The sheep are an excellent way to clear the weeds, which means we can cut down on our spraying which is great for sustainability.
I can see a bright future for our farm, we have four boys coming up who all have a great interest in farming. They are big fans of the Hereford breed, so I think that there will always be Hereford cattle here.
