Cork grower builds resilient business around animal feed
A Carrigtwohill tillage farmer has reshaped his enterprise around home-grown fodder, replacing volatile grain sales with a more flexible approach. His operation supplies dairy customers and reaches farms as far away as Galway and Wicklow.
East Cork tillage farmer JB O’Donovan has built a flexible fodder business by adapting his crops and deliveries to changing markets, he told Teagasc adviser Ciara O’Donovan in Today’s Farm.
After the Mallow sugar beet factory closed in 2006, the Carrigtwohill farmer cut his beet acreage from around 100 acres to 40. A biodiesel venture with other Cork growers later became unviable when its REFIT tariff was rescinded, while high costs and disease pressure prompted him to drop winter wheat.
He expanded into washed fodder beet, which dairy farmers found convenient, before adding maize and whole-crop barley to his feed mix. His rotation now also includes spring beans, which he values as a break crop and a source of protein.
“I went away from selling green grain and home-dried grain as the market was too volatile,” JB said. He contracts out maize planting and whole-crop harvesting, reducing pressure at peak times, but handles most other work himself.
A lorry and weighbridge help him supply customers as far away as Galway and Wicklow. Knowing production costs is vital to pricing, he said, although good grass growth can weaken fodder demand. Teagasc’s free Contract Forage Cropping Agreement is available on its website.