For half a century, the O’Gormans in Kildare have been synonymous with producing high-quality potatoes. We visited their prolific and self-sustaining mixed home farm in the south of the county and caught up with Brendan O’Gorman – who oversees day-to-day activities alongside his brothers, John and Kevin – to find out more about the exceptional family-run operation that is Johnstown Produce Ltd.
For a county that’s renowned for producing thoroughbreds, it’s only apt that Kildare also produces some of the finest potatoes grown anywhere in Ireland. Racing away at the head of the field is Johnstown Produce Ltd. – a traditional family-owned and – operated enterprise that harnesses 50 years of expertise to grow delicious, nutritious and consistently premium-quality spuds.
The O’Gorman brothers Brendan, John and Kevin run the business – which also incorporates dairy and tillage- like clockwork. Focussed, energetic and highly-motivated, they have the knack of producing quality potatoes down to a fine art. Nothing is ever left to chance; everything is carefully thought out and planned down to the last detail; and the O’Gormans are constantly pushing the boundaries to produce even better potatoes, even more efficiently in their rich and bountiful South Kildare soil.
The genesis of Johnstown Produce Ltd. can be traced back exactly half a century. The late Martin O’Gorman began growing potatoes on the home farm in 1966; his sons took up the baton thereafter and incorporated the family business as a limited company in 2010.
Today, some 330 acres of potatoes are grown, predominantly on rented land within a seven-mile radius of Johnstown, near Castledermot in County Kildare. Johnstown Produce Ltd. grow Rooster and Maris Piper varieties exclusively and a yield of 20 tonnes per acre on a good year makes them Kildare’s largest potato producer. Virtually the entire harvest goes to O’Shea Farms in Piltown, County Kilkenny.
Regarding the key to the continued success of Johnstown Produce Ltd. in growing consistently-excellent potatoes, Brendan O’Gorman notes: “It all comes down to knowledge, really. We have years of experience of the art of growing and that stands to us. We know what we’re doing, We’ve developed it over the years and are always eager to learn.”
The potato enterprise – which has been performing steadily on the same acreage for a decade – generates full-time employment for three, plus an additional ten part-time workers during peak season, but the O’Gormans do not believe in storing all their eggs in one basket. To the contrary, they have a further 200 acres dedicated to dairy, with 110 cows producing another staple of the Irish diet for Glanbia.
While both the potato and milk production is going well, Brendan concedes that these are by no means buoyant times for Irish producers: “Milk certainly isn’t at its most wonderful stage at the moment and the dairy farmer is always facing a challenge. It’s a good test of who’s efficient, let’s put it that way.
“But I never borrowed much for the dairy and have kept it debt-free and that is standing to me. Labour-wise and income-wise, potatoes definitely account for the biggest part of it,” adds the Kildare farmer, whose mixed farming enterprise also incorporates an additional 600 acres of tillage – corn and oilseed rape.”
Outside of contract mowing for silage, the O’Gormans do everything themselves and are 100% self-sufficient. They run seven John Deeres (which are paired with 32-foot Gillespie Trailers for potato harvesting) two self propelled potato harvesters, as well as two smaller tractors (a Deutz and a Ford) and also hire in a Fendt 950 to drive the rotavator and ridger.
The fleet is maintained in optimal working condition at all times and fresh units are added as and when required. Crucially, the O’Gorman brothers are not weighed down by any potentially-crippling overheads outside of the day-to-day running of their mixed farming enterprise and this leaves them on very sound financial footing going forward…
“Most of our biggest investments are now behind us,” Brendan confirms. “The refrigerated storage unit was built ten years ago and is well-established and debt-free. It’s nice not to have to do any more major capital work and it certainly helps us produce at a very efficient level.”
The conspicuous absence of large loans on the company accounts provides them with a vital competitive advantage over their competitors and leaves them well-placed to continue to lead the way as Kildare’s premier potato producers – not to mention the complementary dairy and tillage enterprises.
However, they are not going to become complacent or rest on their laurels. The quest for perfection is relentless and Brendan says he will continue to look for ways to increase productivity and minimise the cost of production without sacrificing quality:
“We will keep things as they are in the short term. We will continue to do what we are doing but will try to do it better,” he concludes. “You can never say you have it sorted. You have to keep improving or you will get left behind.”
It’s way more likely that Johnstown Produce Ltd. will move further ahead!
Johnstown Produce Ltd.,
Maganey,
Johnstown,
Athy,
County Kildare
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 8, October 2016
