For most farmers, milking 400 cows would be too big a task. Not so for Co. Antrim brothers Pat and Vincent McKavanagh of Caldhame Farms, who also are agricultural contractors and the people behind Greenacre Composting.
Following in their father Vincent and grandfather Daniel’s footsteps, Pat and Vincent farm approximately 1,250 acres at Nutts Corner, which is on the outskirts of Belfast and only a stone’s throw away from Belfast International Airport.
Their sizeable herd of Holstein Friesian cows are milked all year round, producing between 250,000 and 300,000 litres of milk each month which is supplied to Glanbia in Magheralin, Craigavon. Their large 36/72 milking parlour has the capacity to milk 200 cows per hour. The calving is staggered, meaning there are new calves delivered every week of the year.
In addition, the McKavanaghs have young dairy stock, beef cattle and about 50 suckler cows, which are Limousin cross Friesian. They finish about 650 stores every year. There is a dedicated stock crew of four who look after the milking and general farmyard duties.
There were many column inches given to the lifting of milk quotas on March 31 last after 30 years in which dairy farmers in the Republic were restricted on the amount of milk they could produce. Now, new rules mean they can produce as much milk as they want, leading to fears of overproduction.
However, the McKavanagh’s hold no such fears and are confident that the removal of milk quotas won’t have an adverse effect on them. Indeed, they are committed to increasing their herd size further.
“I don’t expect it to affect us because here in the North we’ve been operating in a quota-free environment for a number of years now. Both the North and South are going to be subjected to world market prices from now on. Our focus is on upping our herd to 500. We have built it up from 200 to 400 over the last five years, and we are keen to grow it further,” Pat says.
Since 1990, the brothers have been providing a complete agricultural contracting service to farmers in Antrim and the surrounding counties of Armagh and Down. Offering a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, McKavanagh Bros specialises in silage cutting, corn harvesting, slurry spreading, ploughing, reseeding, hedge cutting and excavation among other things. The well-known Co. Antrim contractor has a wide range of machinery to carry out your work quickly and efficiently, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment.
The success of McKavanagh Bros is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of their staff, as well as the quality of their equipment. The family-run concern delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Pat and Vincent run a fleet of eight New Holland tractors comprising five T7200s, two T7250s and one T7210. They buy their tractors from local New Holland dealer R Kennedy & Co and generally upgrade every three years to avoid breakdowns and downtime.
The McKavanagh’s operate an array of other plant/equipment, including a New Holland FR700 forage harvester, a Krone Big M 420, a New Holland combine harvester, a new set of Krone triple mowers, six Kane silage trailers, a pair of Claas rakes (2900 and 3600), two Joskin tankers, JCB 435 and 418 loading shovels, Red Rock and Slurrykat slurry tankers, two Lemkin three-metre harrows, a Lemkin one-pass, a Case 130 excavator, a Claas baler, a five-furrow Kverneland plough and an umbilical slurry system.
“We cover within a 20-mile radius of Nutts Corner and have good customers in the local area. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their loyalty and support over the past 25 years,” Pat continues.
The McKavanagh’s are busy all year round with their agricultural contracting business. In the early part of the year, the focus is on slurry spreading and planting. The silage season, which typically runs from May to September, is a particularly hectic time for the team who will work around the clock to keep their clients happy. The harvest then takes precedence, followed by hedge cutting and more slurry spreading.
Pat and Vincent added another string to their bow in 2002 when they established Greenacre Composting. Their state-of-the-art composting facility, which is located half-a-mile from the farmyard, handles 70,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste every year. The waste is composted and turned into a compost/soil conditioner, which is used by the McKavanagh’s themselves and other farmers.
“Any product that biodegrades, i.e. the type of waste you will find in your brown bin, we will accept it at our facility and turn it into compost which can be used as a fertiliser on land,” Pat explains
“The problem with biodegradable waste is that it creates methane gas when landfilled. Our facility allows households to easily recycle food waste and divert it from landfill. Composting ensures the waste becomes a useful product rather than a harmful one.
“There is a growing demand for the compost. We use Volvo and Case loading shovels in the recycling yard and also have two Volvo trucks which are used for taking the compost away.”
Between the three enterprises, 18 people are employed. These include five full-time tractor drivers. It’s likely that Pat and Vincent will be joined before too long in the day-to-day running of Caldhame Farms by their sons PJ and Daniel. PJ is studying agriculture at Queen’s University, while Daniel is nearing the end of his secondary education.
Looks like the McKavanagh name will be around for a long time to come!
Caldhame Farms
102/104 Moira Road,
Nutts Corner,
Crumlin,
Co. Antrim BT29 4HG.
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 6, July 2015
