Philip Britton runs a a state-of-the-art dairying operation in Tipperary and has proven himself to be resilient when it has come to absorbing and managing change on the farm he operates with his uncle Michael.
The Britton family have been farming at the foot of the picturesque Slievenamon mountains for generations and Philip Britton is continuing that proud tradition.
Philip operates an extensive dairy farm on approximately 600 acres in partnership with his uncle Michael at Ballynennan, Mullinahone, Co Tipperary.
Reared on the family farm, he stepped into his father Henry’s shoes after he tragically died following a car crash in Poland back in 2002.
The well-known Drangan farmer was chairman of the IFA grain committee from 1990-’94, and also served as South Tipperary IFA county chairman from 1986-’88.
He was involved in a dairy partnership in Poland and while visiting this farm he was involved in a car crash.
“As soon as I was old enough to put on wellies I was out working on the farm,” Philip told Irish Tractor & Agri magazine.
“Myself and my uncle Michael run the farm now and we take on casual labour as the need arises. My mother Mary and wife Josephine take care of the paper work.”
Philip elaborated further: “We specialise in dairy. It used to be tillage but following the death of my father we took the decision to concentrate on dairy.
“A neighbour of mine once said to me that big cows will always have little cows whereas big tractors just get rust!
“We grow most of our own feed – a mix of grass and maize silage and barley is still grown on the farm providing both grain and straw for feeding. We have a livestock totalling 500, 280 of which are dairy stock.”
Dairy farmers work hard every day to bring the consumer fresh, great tasting, wholesome milk products but their income has taken a hit this year.
Extremely time consuming, the end reward doesn’t always reflect the hours of hard labour and managing volatility is one of the single biggest challenges for dairy farmers
“There’s a lot of pain out there, some of it self inflicted, some of it out of the control of the farmer.
“We’re going to continue as we are and not go mad. If there’s money in milk, farmers will keep producing milk. If there’s no money they won’t, it’s as simple as that. We’re not going to be going out to milk 300 cows if there’s no money in it, what’s the point?!
“That’s what the Co-Ops have to realise. It’s a price sensitive market.”
The trials and tribulations of life as a dairy farmer have been well documented but Philip prefers to look at the glass half full rather than half empty.
Despite the long hours, he has a passion for dairy farming and has ambitions to make the farm prosper even further.
“It’s challenging but at least there’s money in it, it might not be great money but, at the moment, it is viable.
“It requires a hell of a commitment but we run a profitable enterprise, we do the best we can with what we have. We had a fairly extensive operation 15 years ago but we took a step back. Having said that, we’re willing to give anything a go to a degree.
“We always strive to keep all our machinery up to date, we can’t afford to have breakdowns or delays.”
To that end, Philip and Michael recently made the switch over from a paddle type feeder to a Kverneland vertical machine and they haven’t looked back since.
“It’s a gift,” he said. “With our animal numbers, we have to get on with the job. Because of different dietary needs, we need to do six or seven mixes per day. This we can comfortably do with the Duo 22 in around an hour and a half. Even with difficult mixes, we can easily finish within two hours.
“There no comparison with the maintenance and running costs and it gets through the work on the same power as before. It’s saving us an hour a day.”
In a profession where time is precious, that’s a saving not to be sniffed at.
Brittons
Ballynennon, Mullinahone,
Co. Tipperary
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 1, January/February 2015
