JP Davoren

Dangan, Co.Clare

My name is JP Davoren and I have a farm in the townland of Dangan in Co.Clare.

We graze our herd on the Burren. The Burren is famous for its flora, it’s the only place in the world where you’ll find alpine flowers and arctic flowers growing side by side with tropical flowers. This is made possible by the conditions of thin soil, unique rock, heavy rainfall, Atlantic climate and the practice of grazing the cattle here during the winter. The Burren only covers about one percent of Ireland, and yet 23 of the 27 native orchids grow here and seventy percent of Ireland’s native flower species are also found here. That means we have 635 different flowers growing here. Visitors in May and June are treated to a colourful array of native plants.

The Burren is one of the reasons that we use a Hereford bull. The calves are smaller and easy to calve, and they are sturdy and strong and quick to stand up on their feet when they are born, so they are able for the windy, colder conditions found here. The Herefords are suited to places like the Burren, they are the type of cattle that people have kept here going back generations. Even when I was growing up, nobody had anything up here but Herefords.

Grazing the area properly ensures that we are farming sustainably, we need to have enough stock for the amount of land, so that it is all cleaned out properly for the fresh growth in the spring. We use solar panels to pump the water up here, as there’s no electricity.

There is no other breed you could leave up here and expect to bring back down with healthy fit calves.

My sons will farm this land after me and please God a grandson will follow in their footsteps. I can see them keeping with the Herefords, they are the animal that is best suited to the conditions and best suited to us. There is no other breed you could leave up here and expect to bring back down with healthy fit calves.