Features
A great way of life!
There's a lot of doom and gloom about in farming but you won't hear any of that from Jimmy and Marie Barlow who farm organically at Cloonfaughna in north east Galway.
Their fifty-two hectare farm is a model of what a mixed enterprise should be. They produce beef, lamb, pork, chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese for the market. "Mixed farming is more interesting and more profitable," says Jimmy. "It's also more work but we are happy to do it. We are full time farmers."
Popular poultry
A lot of the Barlows energy has gone into setting up their new abattoir on the farm which will make processing much easier. "We really had no choice but to do it," Marie says. "It would be too difficult to bring poultry to Tipperary for killing and we have a lot of family help here on the farm." They produce geese and turkeys mainly for the Christmas market. "We have a lot or regular customers who give repeat orders from year to year," Marie explains. "A special kind of client loves a goose while most people still opt for turkey. Usually, we don't have enough geese but we began producing bronze turkeys last year and found them very good. They are strong and disease resistant and have a great flavour but are slower growing than the white." The Barlows produce about three hundred broilers a year in small batches. "That way we have no pressure and we can supply our customers regularly," Marie says. "We grow the chickens to a good size and that can take up to sixteen weeks."
Farm shop
The farm carries ninety breeding ewes but, according to Jimmy, the market for organic lamb is not good at present. "We sell some through the Leitrim Farmers Organic Co-op but I don't have organic markets for all of them. The market for beef is more profitable and I sold sixteen animals through the co-op last year." Jimmy's cattle are continental crosses and he keeps an Aberdeen Angus bull. He also keeps a couple of Irish Moiled cattle, one of the rarest breeds in existence. "They are quiet cows and have a good temperament," he says.
Pig production is relatively new on the farm. A cross bred sow has produced good litters in the past couple of years and they are fattened and sold to customers. The Barlows haven't gone the route of supplying mixed boxes of meat to customers but will supply a side or whole animal for the deep freeze, depending on customers needs. "We have a farm shop that is open to the public where people can purchase anything we produce and see how the animals are reared," says Marie.
Tillage
Jimmy and Marie grow ten acres of corn to supplement animal feed because the cost of buying in organic rations is prohibitively high. This year they grew eight acres of oats and two of wheat. Last years crop of mixed lupins and wheat was good feed for weanlings over winter and they also grew a rye grass and red clover mixture. "I am ploughing fields that haven't been turned in forty years," Jimmy says. "It is a different system to what most conventional farmers are engaged in. They have confined themselves to one enterprise but mixed farming is definitely better."
The Barlow farm is one of a number of national organic demonstration farms. He points out that many farmers attending an open day on his farm asked a lot of technical questions. "It's as if organic farming is rocket science. Farmers have become so dependent on chemical inputs and single enterprise farming that they are afraid of taking the leap into the unknown. I think the costs in conventional farming are so high that many farmers are now thinking about the organic option."
Good lifestyle
Like all good business people, the Barlows are always looking for a new enterprise that will be profitable. "The Suck Valley walk runs through the farm and we have devoted time to tourism related ventures in the past but there are a lot of good ideas to be explored," says Marie. "Our polytunnel is under utilised at present and we are looking at the possibility of growing organic herbs."
Jimmy is very optimistic about his future in farming. "I think if you are prepared to work and face challenges there is a lot of help out there. We have availed of grant aid from the Department of Agriculture and Teagasc has always been helpful." Marie agrees. "Farming is a great way of life when you are rearing a family. I don't work outside the home and we have a lot of help from our family of nine. We live well on our own produce and have a good standard of living. We started out on the basis that we would be as self-sufficient as possible and all our energies go into farming. You build up a nice relationship with your customers and you get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment from it."
