Farmers take great pride in their livestock and not only are they a form of income for them, but farm animals are generally treated like part of the family.
There are many different aspects to farming as a lot depends on the type of land being farmed as well as other characteristics, but the most common forms of farming are dairy, beef, sheep and tillage.
Nenagh based Michael Murphy is a fifth generation farmer who focuses on beef these days and this year he was named the Beef Farmer of the Year.
It was a massive accolade for Michael to receive, whose family would have been better known as dairy farmers down through the years.
The Farmer of the Year Awards, sponsored by Zurich Insurance, featured eight separate categories including Beef, Sheep and Tillage Farmer of the Year, as well as a new Farm Safety Award, developed to recognise farmers who strive to apply the highest safety standards to their farming practices.
The Zurich Farming Independent Farmer of the Year Awards, now in their second year, recognise the best farmers throughout the country and reward excellence in all areas of farming.
“My Teagasc representative asked if I would like to enter the competition and hesitantly I did,” said Michael. “Around 15 people were put forward and that was narrowed down to three.
“The judges then visited each farm and checked everything out and fortunately I was chosen as the winner and it’s a great honour for myself and my family.”
Michael farms 90 hectares and that is stocked with close to 500 cattle as calves are reared to beef before being sent to the factory.
Beef production from grass is one of Irish farming’s greatest strengths. Ireland’s best asset for beef production is our 1.1 million beef suckler cow herd kept on just under 80,000 farms. These beef animals calve once per year, typically in Spring, with their offspring reared on their mother’s milk until weaning nine months later. The dams are generally Angus, Hereford, Limousin, Charolais or Simmental cross cows, generally sourced as crosses from the dairy herd.
Beef research and advisory services are run nationally by Teagasc, while Bord Bia promotes Irish beef on export markets. The latter also run the highly successful Beef Quality Assurance Scheme, an audited process that ensures all beef sold carrying the Quality Assured Irish Beef logo meets defined standards.
Beef cattle for the export market are slaughtered at one of around 30 approved export meat plants. Three privately controlled firms hold a dominant share of the sector; ABP, owned by Co Louth’s Larry Goodman; Dawn, owned by the Queally and Browne families from Waterford and Kepak, owned by the family of the late Noel Keating in Co Meath.
As well as exports of carcase beef in chilled form, we also export beef in the form of live cattle. In 2011, 215,000 cattle were exported live from Ireland.
Most of these were young animals sent to Italy and Spain, where they are finished through further feeding for up to a year. There is also a sizeable volume of dairy calf exports from Ireland to veal units in the Netherlands.
Michael revealed that a life changing experience in 1998 saw the Murphy family go from dairy farming to beef farming.
“I am the fifth generation of the family to be farming. I took over from my father when he passed away at a young age. We always had been dairy farmers until in ’98, the herd was wiped out with brucellosis.
“We had British Friesian cows at the time and the department depopulated the dairy herd and followers. I asked them to leave a few calves, but everything had to go and it was a tough time for us all.”
“I decided never to go back into cows after that and when the time was right I started into beef and I haven’t looked back since. It took a long time to build the herd up, but I’m happy with what we have now.”
Michael revealed that there are still reminders of their time in dairying around the farm. “The milking parlour is still there, but I’ve certainly no interest in returning to dairying, but if my son or daughters want to, it is there for them.”
“The beef industry is very forward thinking compared to dairy and it certainly has progressed over the years and although there has been challenging times, it is heading in the right direction.”
Before concentrating on farming, Michael was a noted hurler with Templederry and Tipperary and during a short inter-county career, he managed to win an All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship in ‘76 and then played in three All-Ireland under-21 hurling finals, winning two and losing one.
Michael only played for a year-and-a-half at senior level and even then he achieved some success as he won a National Hurling League medal in ‘79.
“When my father passed away I didn’t have time for the hurling and to be honest I don’t have any regrets. I still follow it very closely, but farming is my passion.”
Michael added that he does the majority of the work on the farm himself, with a contractor only being brought in to do the pit silage.
Been named the Beef Farmer of the Year award was never so fitting for this hard working Tipperary farmer.
Michael Murphy,
Big Park,
Latteragh,
Nenagh,
Co Tipperary.
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 8, September 2015
