It is never dull here at Castlemine Farm, and September was definitely a busy month!  Some of the cattle knocked over the drinking trough, which is located in their field and provides their drinking water.  Deciding to take matters into their own hands (or hooves if you prefer), one independent minded cow, chose to climb [...]

It is never dull here at Castlemine Farm, and September was definitely a busy month!  Some of the cattle knocked over the drinking trough, which is located in their field and provides their drinking water.  Deciding to take matters into their own hands (or hooves if you prefer), one independent minded cow, chose to climb down into a water drain herself.  When she got there, she drank her fill but soon realised it was too steep for her to climb out, which luckily enough was when I arrived on the scene!  Knowing it was a job for more than one man, I called Dad and Brendan who came to my, and the cow’s rescue!  My cow had got a little agitated and stressed from being in the drain, and when we finally helped release her, she charged…….at Brendan!!!  Thankfully Brendan, like myself, is  nearly six foot tall, and he ha

stily cleared the drain in one jump! Although Brendan successfully landed on the far side, without a scratch or a splash, preoccupied with getting away from the chasing cow, and jumping mid-air, Brendan only then realised he had jumped the drain at the widest part!  With more time now to study the width of the drain, and with no cow chasing him, Brendan decided to take the safer and drier option and walk down the long lane and back around to the entrance to the field.  The cow, content with the excitement she caused for the day, went back to the other cows and went on happily grazing, and well let’s just say Brendan got a nice bit of exercise for the day too!

Last month in my August diary I mentioned that I was due to have a herd test, which took place early September.  Thankfully it all went well, and all my cattle were cleared.  I also weaned some of the calves since (which means taking them away from their mothers).  I have separated the male and female calves.  They are out on grass at the moment and I am also feeding them a ration of our own rolled barley and rolled wheat mixture.  Next week I want to castrate the males but I want to leave it a week or two to give them a bit of time to get used to being weaned off their mothers.  Depending on the weather and the amount of grass in the fields, I hope to leave the cattle outdoors for another 2-3 weeks.

I talked about the sheep mating season in my August blog, and this month, I let the four rams (2 Texels, 1 Charolaise, and 1 Suffolk) out with the remaining 80 ewes.  I will have approximately 220 to lamb this spring, which will be a very busy time of the year here.  The first batch of ewes that I spoke about last month, have all been served now but I left two rams with them just in case.  I am using a blue colour in the raddle (used to mark the ewe with a certain colour when she has mated with the ram) at the moment, so I know these will be the last ewes served.  I hope to choose my next batch of ewe lambs quite soon, and I will choose anything that is over 50 kg in weight.  I will mate these with a Charolaise ram as these are easy lambing, and leave them to mate from around the 01^st November for about a month.  Anything I don’t choose as a ewe lamb will be kept as a hogget and will be killed later in the year.  I am currently feeding them a diet of our own rolled oats, barley and wheat, and they are out on grass in a field called ‘The Paddock’ which is a short distance away from  the rest of Castlemine Farm.

I weaned 3 sows off 26 piglets and I put these 3 sows back with the boar so they can be served.  I also released 2 sows and their piglets into the field, but this is a separate field from the other pigs.  Bullying can be a big issue, so I try and keep all the pig sizes the same as much as possible, to eliminate older piglets picking on younger piglets.  I put the 2 sows and their piglets into our barley field, which has recently been baled.  The pigs are great as they eat up all the grain that fell during the harvest, so in actual fact, I had very little loss during my harvesting season.  I hope to move the males up to where I have the fodder beet.  They will strip graze the fodder beet, which they love and they eat it row by row!!

Regarding the tillage, all bales are made, so all my crops are all finished now for the year.  I had some small losses but to be honest, nothing to complain about!  We had a bad storm on the Monday of the week we wanted to finish harvesting, so we didn’t get to get out to the field until the Wednesday, but we had it all baled and finished up by the Thursday.  All in all, I got about 3 tonne to the acre, which I am very happy with.  I sold 60 tonne to a local merchant in Castlecoote, and the rest I will keep.  I sold some straw as well, and I will sell the rest after Christmas.  Due to the bad weather, and unless the weather improves a lot, I am not going to sow any winter crops this year.  So at the moment, with the way the weather is, I will just have the spring barley and oats, but no wheat.

Our turkeys are doing great at the moment, so don’t forget to contact the office if you want to order one for Christmas!  We are feeding them a poultry ration, but they are free to use our newly improved turkey shed, or roam outdoors, as they wish.  The field they can roam in is full of clover, so they have a very good balanced diet.

Well that is everything for the moment, check in next month – I’m sure I will have some more interesting stories to tell you especially with Halloween just around the corner!!! Until then, take care and I will…………………………..

Here at Castlemine Farm, you never know what to expect, or to be more precise, who to expect!  And these past few weeks have been no exception! The month was kick started with a lovely, but no less unexpected, visit to our Farm Office by our friendly Castlemine cows.  Looking for a change of scene, [...]

Here at Castlemine Farm, you never know what to expect, or to be more precise, who to expect!  And these past few weeks have been no exception!

The month was kick started with a lovely, but no less unexpected, visit to our Farm Office by our friendly Castlemine cows.  Looking for a change of scene, and hearing the grass was greener on the other side, they decided to take a wander through an open gate and pop down to pay us a visit!!  After staying a little while and checking the Farm Office out, they decided that our gravel stoned car park and pathways, were not as appetising as they had first thought!  It was not long before they were rounded up,and headed happily back to their lush green fields of sweet grass!

Speaking of the cows, I artificially inseminated 8 heifers and they were recently scanned to see how many were in calf.  Six of the heifers are currently in calf, and one will be expecting twins.  The cattle are still outdoors at the moment but I have a herd test, when all the cattle will be herded up and brought into the yard.  A District Veterinary Officer from the Department of Agriculture will test the cows for TB (Bovine Tuberculosis).  The Department also test for Brucellosis but this is slightly different as the date of this test depends on your herd number.  Herd numbers that end in an uneven digit are being tested this year.  Herd numbers with an even last digit will be tested next year, and my herd number here at Castlemine Farm ends in 6, so my Brucellosis test will be carried out next year.  The control and ultimate eradication of these diseases is important for livestock health, but also for our domestic and export markets.  These tests may take a bit of time but in my opinion are well worth it.

Sheep breeding began on the 15^th August, where I let 85 ewes out with 7 rams.  I have two Texel rams, 2 Suffolk rams and 2 Charolaise rams. I did borrow a Lleyn (pronounced ‘Clin’) ram from a neighbour.  This will be the first time this breed of sheep will be introduced to the Castlemine Farm flock.  Apparently they produce very good mothers, with good feet and little lameness.  They are an old traditional breed of sheep, and if all goes well this year, I may invest in one next year.  The rams currently have a ‘raddle’ attached to the underneath side of their chest.  This raddle does not harm the ram in any way, or the ewe.  It is a simple device, strapped on with a harness, to the chest of the ram.  The harness contains a small container that carries the marking colour, similar to paint, on the front.  This raddle is used to mark the ewes with a certain colour when they have mated with the ram. I change the colour of the paint for different mating periods.  So for the first mating, the ewes were marked
with a yellow paint,and for repeats (ewes that did not fall into lamb at the first mating), these ewes are marked with a red paint.  I keep a record of the mating, and their colour, this will help me identify which of the ewes will lamb first in the springtime.  For the repeat ewes, I will expect them to begin lambing approximately 20-21 days (the length of a ewe’s cycle), after the first batch of ewes have lambed.  The ewe cycle can depend on the breed of the sheep.  I have another 90 ewes to mate with the rams, and this mating will begin on the 15^th October.  I did buy in 25 lambs which I will keep on Castlemine Farm specifically for breeding.  I bought these lambs from a local farmer who I have been dealing with for years.  I also kept another 25 of my own lambs for breeding.  My aim is to increase, slowly but surely, my breeding flock here at Castlemine Farm and eventually I would like about 300 breeding ewes.

Unfortunately, I had some complications with the sows and new piglets this month.  For both sows it was their
first time having piglets.  My first sow had 15 piglets, but had lost 2 by the time I got to her.  She had another two runts who did not make it, and one very weak piglet, who survived for a day or two.  I brought him up to the house and heated him by the fire.  But, sadly to say, after a lot of care and attention, he didn’t make it either.  My second sow had 14 piglets, all born alive but she stood on two, which left 12 piglets. Generally speaking with such a high number of piglets per sow, it really is survival of the fittest and not all tend to survive.  This then raises the question of a farrowing crate.  Not something I am completely comfortable with, but it does have its pros and cons. A farrowing crate is exactly how it sounds, a crate wide enough for a sow to stand up, and lie down in, with enough room to nurse her piglets.  There are troughs on either side of the crate where the little piglets can be fed without being trod on.  A farrowing crate would reduce the piglet losses.  The down side is however that I would need to put the sow in the crate 1-2 weeks before she has her piglets, and she would remain there for a possibly another 2 weeks afterwards.  As you know, our pigs here at Castlemine Farm
are free range, something I take great pride in.  My concern would be the shock to the sow of being so confined, after being so used to the wide outdoors.  But my mind is not decided yet – if you have any opinions on this, let me know, or if you know of any alternative solutions, I would be glad to hear them!  Our boar is back again too after I leant him to the ‘Friendly Farmer’.  I’m glad to say he is in great form and happy to be home again.

We finished the turkey shed just in the nick of time before our latest arrivals to Castlemine Farm.  Our turkeys are a traditional Bronze breed which has a very good marbling through their meat.  They all arrived safe and
sound and are settling in nicely.  Dad and Brendan helped me out with the building, which was a great help.  We put in a new concrete floor and recycled some old sheeting too which is always good. We replaced the doors to the shed as well, where there were once swinging doors, we now have sliding doors. The great thing about the new shed is that it is large enough to do a few jobs.  So we still have room for the turkeys but we are also able to use it for other purposes – like storing our bales.

Regarding the tillage side of Castlemine Farm, on the first day, a Wednesday, we began at 6.30 pm.  We cut 6 acres of barley and got 2.75 ton to the acre.  We had very good moisture percentages, ours was 15.5 % moisture.
Generally anything above 20 % has too high of a moisture content and your price can be penalised.  Less than
20% is good, and you get a better price. So I am very happy with this.  On the Thursday we began at 10.30 am where we cut 11 acres of wheat.  We got 3.5 ton to the acre and a moisture content of 16.5%.  So again I was pleased.  Thursday evening we started to cut a 14 acre field of barely but unfortunately the weather was against us and we only got two thirds of the field cut.  On the Friday we cut for an hour before the weather went against us again, and we had to stop.  We still have about 12 acres of spring barley and 7 acres of oats to cut. The persistent rain will damage the barley and its value will deteriorate, but the oats should be fairly ok. But all in all, I can’t complain as it was a very good year.  I got the silage cut this month too – 30 acres are stored in the silage pit, and I had 10 acres baled and wrapped.  We finished covering the pit at 10pm that night, luckily enough, as the rain reappeared the following morning.

Well that is all for the moment.  If you any comments or opinions about any of my blogs, I’d love to hear them.
You can follow me and all that goes on here at Castlemine Farm, on Facebook, on Twitter or drop me an email: info@castleminefarm.ie In the meantime, take it easy, and as you know I will………….

I seem to be getting a bit worse at sitting down and writing the diary these days. It’s becoming more of a quarterly review! Anyway I’ll give you a run down on all that’s been going on. I’ll start with the beef. The cows and calves are doing really well. I’m very happy with the [...]

I seem to be getting a bit worse at sitting down and writing the diary these days. It’s becoming more of a quarterly review! Anyway I’ll give you a run down on all that’s been going on. I’ll start with the beef. The cows and calves are doing really well. I’m very happy with the Angus calves. The Irish weather conditions suit the breed very well compared to the continental breeds.
I suppose it makes sense as Scottish conditions are very similar to here.
I started killing last year’s calves a few weeks ago and I’m very happy with the meat quality and weights of the animals. They were just fed on grass and some of our own rolled barley. The dead weight (weight of animal carcass}was 330 kg at 19-20 months which was good as they were never over fed.
I picked out 8 of the Angus heifers for breeding and got them A. I. (Artificial Insemination) as they are related to the bull. That worked out well because I think 7 are in calf but I won’t know for sure until they are scanned.
The sheep are going well too. They were all sheared in June and for the first time in my farming career I got more for the wool than it cost to take off, so that was nice.
My father tells a story about his first tractor, a Ferguson 20, and plough he bought with the money from a year’s wool. How times have changed!
I have all the lambs weaned since last week. They got a mineral dose that day and were treated against blowfly (maggots). I have about 30 killed at this stage so supply is working well because I stagger the breeding season which is nearly upon us again!

I will pick out the first batch this week and get them ready for breeding on the 15th of August. I think I might increase numbers again this year.
The piggy’s have all had their piglets since I last wrote and it went great, bar the Old Spot sow who only had three which was disappointing as she had 13 last time. I might give her another chance because she was my best and nicest sow, probably shouldn’t though.
The boar is on holidays with the Friendly Farmers sows and getting on well with them I hear.
I fenced off 4 bits of boggy land side by side I have rented and they are great for the sows and the piglets. It was full of  flaggers and rushes and was so rough you couldn’t drive on it. They have all the rushes eaten and have dug up all the roots  so when I take them off  I will give it a run with the power harrow and seed it with grass and then move on the fences until I have all 30 acres done. It will make a nice field out of it as it is very dry bog.

The tillage has done well also. The winter wheat has started to ripen and I’m happy with the crop, it should yield well. The spring barley is good too it’s starting to change colour. There is more disease about this year in the wet conditions but we should be ok. The oats look well and should yield well too. It’s still green so it will be the last to ripen. The fodder didn’t do as well as I would have liked. It takes a lot of nutrients to grow and I don’t think I put enough on the fields but it’s not bad and will do the pigs nicely in the winter months.

I got 40 acres of silage made in early June. We got 3 great days to do it and the silage has turned out to be a great buy as I can do the silage on the day I want and I have a better control on quality. That’s nearly it. I’m in the middle of doing up the shed for the arrival of the turkeys later this month. We are getting them off heat this year. It’s a little more expensive but suits us better as there is a lot going on here and it will be one less thing to worry about.

Until next time
Derek

Take a look at Brendan speaking about the Castlemine Farm Brand on Youtube here and learn tips on how to leverage social media tools sucessfully for your brand. Type this link into your browser if the link above does not work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXuQYT0CZlg&feature=channel_video_title

Take a look at Brendan speaking about the Castlemine Farm Brand on Youtube here and learn tips on how to leverage social media tools sucessfully for your brand. Type this link into your browser if the link above does not work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXuQYT0CZlg&feature=channel_video_title

As you may have noticed we have recently re-vamped our website to accommodate a larger online shop! It is now possible to shop online on www.castleminefarm.ie as if you were walking into our own shop in Roscommon. “Due to an increase in demand online for our meat products we felt the need to enhance our [...]

As you may have noticed we have recently re-vamped our website to accommodate a larger online shop! It is now possible to shop online on www.castleminefarm.ie as if you were walking into our own shop in Roscommon. “Due to an increase in demand online for our meat products we felt the need to enhance our website to make it even easier for people to buy online” says Brendan Allen of Castlemine Farm. Our new-look website now stocks sauces, dairy products, various condiments and other similar products that compliment our meat products perfectly. So when you buy that next Castlemine Farm Shoulder of Lamb you can add some Stokes Real Mint sauce to your basket? Or how about some delicious Hamburger Relish from Janet’s Country Fayre to accompany your succulent Castlemine Farm Beef Burgers?

Many people are turning to online when shopping for meat. “People are more conscious these days about where their meat comes from and seem to be more confident buying directly from a farm they know” comments Brendan Allen.
The Castlemine Farm product range includes Beef, Lamb, Pigmeat, and Poultry. Our ‘farming by hand’ approach and attention to detail reflects in the unique quality, taste and flavour of the final produce. The farm itself comprises of over 250 acres, spanning several lush green fields of top quality land in the heart of Four Mile House in Co. Roscommon.

Orders can be made 24hrs a day online and are dispatched every Friday. Orders must be made before 11am on Thursday to guarantee delivery on the Friday. Nationwide deliveries are available at €7.95 per order. There is free delivery on orders over €100. Meat is packed freshly in special refrigerated boxes to ensure freshness every time when you receive your order. The temperature will remain below 4° C until you open the box. Meat products are suitable for freezing upon delivery to you.

You are just a few clicks away from ordering your fresh meat online and delivered straight to your door!
Place your order today!

You can also call 090 6629 886 to place an order over the phone.

It’s been a while since i sat down at the computer. We have had a busy couple of months. I’ll give you a quick rundown on how each enterprise is going. I will start with the sheep. It was a very good year overall. After the rocky start, the rest of them went well. I [...]

It’s been a while since i sat down at the computer.

We have had a busy couple of months. I’ll give you a quick rundown on how each enterprise is going.

I will start with the sheep. It was a very good year overall. After the rocky start, the rest of them went well. I have 15 yearling hoggets left to lamb.  They are going well and they can be troublesome at times so that’s good.

At the moment I am at 1.7 lambs per ewe out in the field which is well up from last year. It seems to be the same with other farmers. I talked some and most seem happy with their year. I think it has a lot to do with the fine weather at breeding time.

The calves are nearly done too, there is only four left and they should calf by next week. At the present time we have 22 bulls 18 heifers and all are strong and healthy.

I had no problems at all with them which is great as it can get costly and time consuming if they start getting scours.

Some of the cows and calves are out at grass and I will be letting more out this week.

The sows are all back with the boar at the present. I was looking at them today and there is one filling up well, she won’t be much longer until she has her piglets.

I will take her away and put her on her own this week so she can get used of her new surroundings. This is the sow that i thought ate her piglets the last time so we will see what happens this time hopefully all will be ok.

We got all the corn sown in great weather, it was all done in ideal conditions. We have 6 acres of oats and 32 acres of barley and 12 acres of the winter wheat which is doing well. So we should have some surplus this year, so we will just sell some which would be good if the price stays strong. I still have 3.5 acres of fodder beet and 3 acres of kale to put in but should get that done this week weather permitting.

The grass is growing very well for this time of year I got 50000 gallons of pig slurry last month and mixed it with the cattle slurry and put all out on the land. It’s a great fertilizer and free! The silage ground is closed since the middle of March so we should be cutting the silage the end of May or  early June which I am very happy about as the land will be back in use for grazing early in the year.

That’s just a quick review of the spring which went off very smoothly this year.

So much for writing the diary on a weekly basis! That worked as well as I thought it would!! I have a good excuse though as it is one of the busiest times of year. I’ll start with the sheep, the first batch are finished and out to grass. I ended up with 36 out [...]

So much for writing the diary on a weekly basis!
That worked as well as I thought it would!!
I have a good excuse though as it is one of the busiest times of year.
I’ll start with the sheep, the first batch are finished and out to grass. I ended up with 36 out of the 40 ewes gone out with 58 lambs and 3 pets left in the shed. I have to bottle feed these 3 until we can foster them onto another ewe with one lamb or if a ewe loses one of her lambs we can try and get one of them on her.

There are a few ways of getting a ewe to take a lamb thats isn’t her own.
If you are there when the ewe has a dead lamb you can rub the dead lambs scent on the pet lamb or sometimes the ewe could just take to a lamb if you put him in with her not long after she lambs but its rare. There is one more method which most of you will gasp in shock at. You can skin the dead lamb and put the skin on the new lamb like a coat. The ewe smells her own lambs scent and takes to the lamb straight away, it might sounds gruesome but bear is mind nothing is hurt by doing this and the orphaned lamb gets a new mammy and ewe thinks its her lamb and I don’t have to make bottles!
A win win situation.

The second batch have started. I think we’ll get 15 lambs out of that group, one of which are triplets. She has enough milk for the 3 of them I think but I will have to watch her closely and take one away if they are hungry.

The calves are going well. We have 15 at the moment, 11 males and 4 females, a bit uneven but it usually balances out in the end. The angus calves are great. The cows calf on their own and they are up quickly and suckling the cow which is the most important thing. After a few days I put in there ear tags which are the yellow tags with my farm identity number. Each calf has there own number and passport which is the blue card I get sent to me.
On the card there is the calfs date of birth, sex, breed, her mothers number and my name and address.
This card will go wherever the animal goes for her lifetime and any testing for TB, which you have to do every year, is recorded by the Department of Agriculture on the card.
I have 20 days to tag the calf from birth and 7 more days to register the calf with the department which I do online.
The pigs are going well too. I had 2 gilts (1st time to have piglets). One had 12 piglets and the other had 10 so I am very happy with that.
I have picked out 4 more young females and let them in with the boar so hopefully they go as well.
Out of the last 3 pigs to farrow I had 33 piglets which is great. It costs a lot to feed a fully grown sow so I need at least 8 piglets alive to make it pay.
That’s it!
I am off to check for more lambs and calves.

Until next time.

- Derek

Official Launch of Castlemine Roscommon Shop When: Saturday the 19th February 2011 Where: Athlone Road, Roscommon Town Time: 10am – 6pm Print Voucher here for 10% off on Saturday. If you have forgotten what real meat tastes like, then the perfect opportunity has come your way! Get yourself down to the Official Launch of our [...]

Official Launch of Castlemine Roscommon Shop

When: Saturday the 19th February 2011
Where: Athlone Road, Roscommon Town
Time: 10am – 6pm

Print Voucher here for 10% off on Saturday.

If you have forgotten what real meat tastes like, then the perfect opportunity has come your way!
Get yourself down to the Official Launch of our NEW Castlemine Farm Shop in Roscommon town this Saturday the 19th February. To celebrate our official launch, we are giving 10% off all produce this Saturday at our new store, Athlone Road, Roscommon. This launch is also an opportunity for us showcase our new cooked food range.

Call in to us and experience award winning real meat and farm produce direct from Castlemine Farm, a taste of natures finest.

Nationwide Expansion Plans

We are delighted with the success so far with the ‘Castlemine Farm’ brand, and we must say it is going from strength to strength. The launch of our new shop in Roscommon Town is just the start of our nationwide expansion plans. We also plan to open a further three shops in different locations nationwide over the next 12 months. The successes we continue to have in Moycullen Country Market (every Friday) and Galway City Market (every Saturday) has earmarked plans for a second shop to open in Galway soon. So watch this space!

This really is an exciting time for us on Castlemine Farm. Hope to see you all on Saturday – Tell your friends!

- Derek

Where do I start!. I’ve been a bit lazy since Christmas about the diary, but it’s a new year and there’ll be a more regular diary entry from now on. I promise! Christmas went well for us despite mother nature throwing all she had at the country. Our shop moving to Roscommon worked out well,the [...]

Where do I start!.
I’ve been a bit lazy since Christmas about the diary, but it’s a new year and there’ll be a more regular diary entry from now on.
I promise!
Christmas went well for us despite mother nature throwing all she had at the country.
Our shop moving to Roscommon worked out well,the road into the farm was impassable (for cars anyway) so we would be eating turkey every day until christmas 2011 if we hadn’t made the move.
Back on the farm things are starting to get busy, the first lambs arrived on the 5th Jan.
It got off to a very bad start, I had 8 dead lambs and 1 dead ewe before I had a live lamb.
These things happen sometimes and there was nothing I could do about it.
Thankfully we are having a great run since with lots of twins and all healthy and strong.
Its working out well, we look at them every 2 hours except at night when dad looks at them about 1am before he goes to bed and I get up at 6am, so far so good.
I have only let a few out of the shed yet because of the rain but the next fine day I will let the rest out.
There is just 15 left of the 40 ewes that were in this batch.
We had two sows farrow since the last entry in the diary. One on the 20th Dec, she had 10, it was the day we were in Tipperary getting the turkeys killed and I wasn’t about, two piglets had wandered off and because it was so cold they died but the rest are fine and getting big.
The other was last night she had 11 and all well so far.I have 25 pigs I’m fattening outside. I moved them up to 4 acres of turnips today so they are very happy with themselves. I put a roof on a old cattle trailer and filled it with straw so they have somewhere dry and warm to lie.
I sold 11 dry cows(cows with no calves)to the factory on Monday last.The price of beef has taken a huge lift at last and looks likely to continue on all farm enterprises except the pig farmers who are having a hard time at the moment but hopefully that will change for them soon before too many of them go out of business.
The first of the calves are not due until around the middle of Feb.
That’s it I think.
I’m off to check and see have we any more lambs.
Until next time.

- Derek