Consistently raising the bar and setting new standards, Tateetra & Rathmore Farms has – under the watchful eye of fiercely-passionate farm manager John Kingham – evolved into Ireland’s largest and most highly-regarded commercial suckler enterprise. In the wake of Tateetra & Rathmore’s hugely-successful 2021 annual bull and heifer sales and bang in the middle of autumn calving, we interrupted John’s busy schedule to get an update.
Quality is undoubtedly the key driver behind the success and growth of Tateetra & Rathmore Farms and this enduring quality is really starting to shine through in the steadily-increasing prices they are attracting for their breeding stock. On Friday, October 1st, 2021, for example, Ireland’s premier commercial suckler farm held their third annual heifer sale at Carnaross Mart in County Meath and this event proved to be another resounding success, presenting the best of the best from the farm’s spring and autumn 2020 born heifers.
“It went unbelievably well and we probably didn’t expect it to be such a success,” reflects John Kingham, who has been farm manager at Tateetra & Rathmore Farms for four years now. “We sold all 151 heifers at a €1,530 average with a top price of €5,500.”
For context, the average price at the 2020 heifer sale in Carnaross was €1,350, with a top price of €4,100 paid. Prior to that, the top price generated at the 2019 sale was €3,500, “For the first show, the average was €1,195, which has risen steadily each year to €1,350 and now €1,530, so we are going in the right direction,” John notes. “It’s not easy to get every calf in the herd to the right quality but we are making great strides by taking in different breeds and using AI alongside top-end stock bulls.
“The quality is really showing through and the prices are going up – there is no better way of measuring the quality. We try to source the best bulls we possibly can and I would argue that our stock bulls could be even better than what’s in AI.”
Placing a major emphasis on quality genetics, the farm runs 19 stock bulls (breeds including Limousin, Charolais, Belgian Blue, Shorthorn and Simmental) alongside their industry-leading AI programme.
The success of the aforementioned third annual heifer sale did not happen by accident. To the contrary, John invested more than two months of preparation into the sale, using his own knowledge and intuition to carefully select those most suitable to top-end breeding from the 230 heifer calves on the farm.
Tateetra & Rathmore Farms’ inaugural bull weanling sale – an elite sale of 142 E&U grade weanling bulls at Ballybay Livestock Sales in County Monaghan – followed on Monday, October 18th. Nerves were understandably jangling ahead of the farm’s first-ever bull sale but it was extremely well received.
“We sold 130 weanling bulls in total, December-born up to May-born, topping out at €2,100 and at an average price of €1,070. It went very well and between the two sales we hit an average of €1,300 across the board. The bottom line with sucklers is that if you put the work in and produce quality, you will get paid accordingly.”
There’s never a dull moment on Tateetra & Rathmore Farms and the heifer and bull sales dovetailed nicely with the onset of autumn calving season. “At the moment we are doing 40% autumn calving and 60% spring calving but over the next two years my aim is to move to 80% calving in autumn and 20% in the spring,” John reveals.
Straddling counties Louth and Meath and breeding, nurturing and selling exceptional commercial weanling and yearling bulls and heifers, Tateetra and Rathmore Farms is a 500-cow suckler enterprise spanning some 1,000 acres of fertile land and home to over 1,000 head of cattle in total.
To say that manager John Kingham is passionate about farming – and suckler farming in particular – would constitute an exercise in understatement. Sucklers are becoming more and more of a niche market and, while a recent CSO survey shows that suckler cow numbers in Ireland fell by more than 40,000 between June 2020 and June 2021, the Monaghan man is a firm believer that suckler farming – which is vital to the Irish economy and to countless livelihoods – has a big future on this island:
“Rural Ireland is all about suckler businesses and the Government should be doing more to protect them,” he points out. “If they really don’t want beef farmers, which is how it looks, why don’t they just tell all of us to stay at home? The economy would crash at 100mph. If there’s no food, there’s no life.
“Be it beef, dairy, poultry or pigs, we have the best farmers in the business here in Ireland, with the best traceability in the world. If Irish beef was promoted and marketed right, as a niche product, we could sell it at the proper price. But to achieve that you need more people with a love of farming and a real drive. The way I see it you have two types of people: those who are in a box and can’t see out and those who are outside that box and can see both in and out – we need more of the latter people. Farming is simple enough but it needs to be promoted and marketed better.”
Needless to say, Government plans to dramatically reduce the national herd in an effort to lower carbon emissions have gone down like the proverbial lead balloon at Tateetra & Rathmore Farms and it’s probably safe to assume that John won’t be sending Eamon Ryan a Christmas card this year – or any other December for that matter: “It’s absolutely outrageous. Look, farmers have to do their bit and we accept that but you can’t get rid of something that is essential – and food is essential. Where is the food going to come from?
“From when a calf is born, it takes three years before it goes to slaughter and if you cut the herd back from two million to one million that’s an awful lot of food gone out of the food chain. We can’t feed our population as it is – do they want us to starve? People who aren’t involved in farming and who can’t see what’s going on first hand don’t realise what’s coming down the line. As a nation, we are going to get a massive wake-up call eight or nine months from now when the price of food and groceries skyrockets and people can’t afford to put food on the table. This is not the time to be reducing our food supply.”
This would of course impact severely on farm incomes. “The costs farmers are facing are unreal and they keep going up,” John continues. “I’ll give you an example: I usually use 120 tonnes of fertiliser but this year I could only afford 28 tonnes at the price it was going for and was told to be glad to get it. It cost €25,200 and that same quantity cost me €8,000 last year. Something isn’t right. I fear that we are going to have serious food shortages in the not-too-distant future and will have to pay much higher prices for whatever does appear on the shelves.”
Farmers got another kick in the teeth when decarbonising incentives were excluded from Budget 2022 at the eleventh hour. “What they are doing to farmers is wrong. I agree with taxing people who refuse to change but don’t tax those who have no alternative! People think farmers are loaded but if they don’t have tractors they can’t get their work done. Farmers really need a break and the suckler community needs a break. It’s high time they got something back from the Government.”
Despite the many challenges the sector faces, John believes there is still hope for suckler farming in Ireland: “My heart and soul is in sucklers,” he confirms. “We do everything we can here to make sure we raise the best stock and I believe the very least all farmers deserve is a fair price for their product. Everything in Ireland is centred around Dublin and big multinationals but we need to do more to help rural communities.
“I’ll tell you this – when the next burst comes the Government will look again to the Irish farmers to pull them out, as they have done time and time again. Farming is what keeps this country going. At the moment farmers are almost being criminalised for what they are doing but these are the very people who are keeping the wheels tuning and the lights on.
“The average age of a farmer in Ireland now is 66 years old. And you can’t just take somebody from a town and put them on a farm because they won’t get it. It’s easy for lads to stand up in the Dail and talk rubbish about farming – but if you’re not involved in it then you haven’t got a clue. Food is a big problem worldwide now and farmers are the ones with the solution, so why drive them out of business?”
John is ably assisted at Tateetra & Rathmore Farms by four full-time workers and a couple of part-time helpers, stressing that a team effort has been instrumental in the enterprise’s success story to date. The farm manager has had a clear vision of where he wants to go with the business since Day One and continues to focus on the future:
“Farming is a job I love. There’s a small population of farmers here in Ireland – when the gate opens into your farm you are the one who decides what you are going to do.
“People say there’s no money in sucklers but there is if you do it right,” he concludes. “If you put the effort in and the work in, you will get your rewards. I planned the development of this farm long-term and I already know today where I intend to be in three years. It’s going where I want it to go.”
There are many more chapters remaining to be written in this particular success story. To keep up with the latest news and developments at Tateetra & Rathmore Farms, why not follow their excellent Facebook page?
Tateetra & Rathmore Farms,
Castletown,
Dundalk,
County Louth.
Tel: 086 1674960
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 2, March/April 2022
