In May, Cork dairy farmer Peter and Paula Hynes picked up two awards at the Zurich Farm Insurance Farmer of the Year awards at the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with the man himself to learn more about his operation and what the recent recognition means to him and his family.
National awards don’t come all that often and for husband and wife dairy farmers Peter and Paula Hynes the recognition in the early part of this summer has been something they’ll never forget.
Both have been immersed in their family farm for the past seven years now and the massive strides made in that short space of time has saw the start of a €500,000 six-year business plan taking shape in 2017.
It’s a required business plan as well, considering that the farm’s Rathard Hosteins herd has trebled in size since 2015 to 150 at the moment.
The objective for Peter and Paula is to see those numbers swell up to 200 next year, as the former told Irish Tractor & Agri when we caught up with him shortly after the double success at the Farmer of the Year awards.
“We’re based in Aherla, Co Cork and the farm is right in the middle of the village,” Peter explained. “The farm is there for us seven years now, but there have been cows on the farm itself since the 1800s, and it’s me and my wife Paula running it right now. It’s a dairy farm and at the moment we’re milking 150 cows.”
Along with his wife, Peter hadn’t had much of a farming background prior to 2010 but decided to earn one after enrolling himself in a Level 6 dairy course in Clonakilty Agricultural College. He quickly excelled in it by winning ‘Student of the Year’.
Neither Peter nor Paula had been born into the agricultural industry but when Peter’s stepfather, Geoffrey Good, decided to step aside from his farm and handed over the reins to the pair they took the opportunity to grow their new dairy farm and the progress in the space of seven years has simply been remarkable.
“Originally when I came here we built up the farm and eventually went into a milking production partnership,” Peter outlined.
“My step father, Geoffrey Good, my wife and myself look after the day-to-day management of it now and Dairygold are the co-op we supply.”
The Hynes’s recently installed a new 20-unit Dairymaster parlour as a part of the substantial investment programme that they’ve committed to for the next six years.
The bulk tanks and milking plant are washed using chlorine free detergents and tcm levels are four times lower than EU targets with TBC running as low as 2k and THD down to 0. para 15.
Dairymaster has technology that Peter and Paula have had the utmost faith in since bringing the first parlour into their farm. Their high performance equipment benefits the progressive farmer on a daily basis and Peter, for one, has been impressed with the product from Day One.
“We put in a Dairymaster in February and it really is a state-of-the-art parlour,” he stated.
“We’ve also put up a new shed for 240 cows and the plan is to be milk 200 cows come next year, so we’re planning ahead here and that’s kind of the way it’s always been.”
One thing Peter wasn’t planning for however was the awards success his farm earned this past May.
His wife Paula had felt that he “deserved some recognition” for the farm’s rapid growth in the space of seven short years and entered him into the Zurich Farm Insurance Farming Independent Farmer of the Year awards after flicking through pages of the publication and spotting an add.
The pair hadn’t even dreamed of winning any gongs but soon learned of the nominations and were on their way to the Ballsbridge Hotel towards the end of May.
With six different categories, the awards are about recognising and rewarding the very best in Irish Farming and are a joint venture between Alchemy Event Management & Independent News & Media.
Each category winner received a price of €2,000 prize, as well as a magnificent trophy, while the overall category winner would scoop a cool cash prize of €3,250, as well as a €750 voucher for Zurich Farm Insurance.
On the night, the 42-year-old Peter Hynes defied the odds with a double victory which was real cause for some real celebration afterwards.
“The awards took place in Ballsbridge in Dublin and there were six categories altogether,” Peter explained.
“We won the Rising Star award and then at the end of the night we were awarded the Overall Farmer of the Year as well, which was a real surprise.
“It was such a great honour for us. We were obviously delighted to win two awards on the night and get the recognition as well. It was a great night for us overall.”
The Hynes will hope there are more good times to come down the line but, for now, their focus remains firmly on expanding their dairy farm up to 200 cows in 2018.
All in all, Peter will tell you that the future looks very bright indeed.
“We’d be happy enough with the way things are going,” he beamed.
“The milk market is improving and we’re at a good price now. The weather has been good this year and we’ve opened a new parlour as well, so overall things are good.”
Peter and Paula Hynes have been dairy farmers for the past seven years and they’ve met some amazing people from all over the world – from the UK, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Australia – in that time. They have three daughters, Chloe, Becky and Georgina.
Rathard Holsteins Herd
Rathard,
Aherla,
Co Cork
Tel: 087-0644678
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 6, September 2017
