Tirlán suppliers encouraged to apply for EIP funding

Father and son team, Michael and Seán Dowling farm just outside Portlaoise. The dairy farm on which they milk the cows doesn’t have a watercourse nearby but extra care is needed on an outer block which features a river and drains.

“None of our cattle drink from the river and all our water troughs are well placed. We haven’t made an EIP application yet but it’s definitely something we will look at. Our plate cooler uses a lot of water so we put in a 10,000 litre recycled water storage unit to cut down on our water usage and make the farm more sustainable.

“For every litre of milk we produce, we need two litres of water. There’s always something to be done and both of us invested in solar for our homes. We will see how we get on with that for the houses and make a decision then about investing in it for the farm.”

Dairy farmer Bernard Ging farms in derogation. “I’ve done a lot of work on the farm over the years. I moved all the roadways out from the watercourses and all of the water is fenced off.

“I’ve implemented buffer zones and keep well back when I’m spreading slurry with a trailing shoe. I’m stocked at 210 at the moment but would be back to 170 if the derogation isn’t retained. That would mean I’d be back 30%, with less cows but still have the same overheads. It would make it very, very difficult to make a living so we’re doing the very best we can to help our case. We always have done.”

Liam Barton helps Martin on the Devin farm anytime an extra pair of hands is needed. The honours Agricultural Science Degree holder has a drystock farm nearby but is about to get into dairying.

“I’m contract rearing at the moment close to here. I have re-seeded the farm with white clover and am availing of red clover on the outer blocks. This will reduce my fertiliser dependency. I’m following the Clover 150 programme which involves incorporating clover more readily.

“I’m hoping to milk 60 to 70 cows. Getting into dairy farming was always my long-term plan and I’m looking forward to it.. Farming is very much in my blood..”

“I’m about to start the paperwork. It has been very straight-forward and my Tirlán ASSAP advisor, Roisin,  has done the heavy lifting for me if I’m being honest.  I’m applying for support for a bunded drain.  I would have put in for a yard brush as well but I already have one that is being repaired at the moment.

“I did a good few repairs on my concrete yard lately – focusing on parts of the concrete that were broken. I’ve two streams on my land, one of them about 500 metres form the yard so protecting that is very much on my mind all of the time. I’ve good storage and my storm water is also in good fettle. We also invested in a dirty water tank.

“The EIP has definitely speeded up things. We’re all getting better at doing things on our farm.”