This Farming Life - March

Jenny Young is very busy at Castlefarm, with new calves and early growth in the gardens

At Castlefarm the majority of our dairy herd has calved down, resulting in up to 40 calves to feed twice a day. It also takes longer to milk with 71 cows now milking in the parlour. We keep the female, heifer, calves for milking and some Angus beef heifer calves for fattening. We sell the male calves as soon as we can.

This year calf prices are really good and we are getting about €260 per male calf. We haven’t even had to bring calves to the mart yet because demand is so great that farmers are arriving onto the farm enquiring about calf sales.

When a calf is born its paperwork trail begins. The calf has to be tagged and registered on the Department of Agriculture website. Subsequently its passport arrives in the post. When we sell a calf we must register this sale and the passport must accompany the calf.

The mild spring and good grass growth means the milking herd of cows are already outside full time. It is great because there is less work feeding silage and bedding the sheds down. Milk yield also rises with grass in the cows’ diet and of course grass is a lot cheaper than feeding silage.

This week we will collect four organic piglets from Dominic Leonard of Castlewood Farm. We will fatten them and their meat will be sold during the summer. We are also fattening three Angus heifers for beef in early summer.

In the garden our rhubarb is thriving. The first of our salad crops are also growing well in the polytunnel. Seedlings are coming on well in seed trays. My father in law has ploughed my vegetable patch for me and, once the weather dries up a little, I will rotavate it so it is ready for planting next month. Our allotment holders have been busy getting their plots ready for sowing. I love this time of year, even if it is extremely busy!


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This March Castlefarm Shop in Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare will open 10am-6pm on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st. Collect your own eggs at 2.30 pm Sat 31st. New season rhubarb will be on sale!

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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