Mervyn Johnston

Lanesborough, Co Longford

My name is Mervyn Johnston. I am farmer from Lanesborough in Co Longford, I run the farm here with my wife Karen, and my three children, Andrew, Elliott and Ruth. We run a suckler to beef system.

Most of my cows are Hereford cross, we have heavy soil here and they do well on it. They have good feet and are good mothers. They are easy to manage and are easy calvers with good milk. The fact that they are such easy calvers suits my system because I also have an off-farm job.

In addition to my Hereford cross cows, I also have three or four pedigree cows that I try to keep bulls for neighbouring dairy farmers. I find that the calves that come off a Hereford bull are excellent, they are easy managed, easy growing and hardy. It’s important when you are working off-farm that you have an animal that is hardy and easy to keep. On the first of October, I have to take cattle off certain fields on the farm, to allow swans to come off the lake and graze over the winter. The cattle don’t go back on those fields until the first of April.

At the moment we are letting the hedges grow, in accordance with the new environmental schemes, so we let them grow higher and we just breast the sides of them to protect the birds nesting. I am currently on a pilot environmental scheme with Irish Hereford Prime, where we are measuring soil health, carbon and measuring hedges at ground level. This is to get a baseline measure of potential carbon capture at farm level.

The fact that they are such easy calvers suits my system because I also have an off-farm job.

My wife is a qualified homeopath, and we use homeopathy on the herd. At weaning time, we put homeopathic remedies into the water for both cows and calves prior to separation and again after separation, and we have found that it reduces stress and aids health on both sides. I have personally seen the benefits of using homeopathy on weaning calves, during that stressful period.