Liam Cassin

Liam Cassin, Bennetsbridge, Co.Kilkenny

Liam is farming 30ha (75acres) just outside Bennetsbridge in Kilkenny, just 6 miles from Kilkenny town.  He took over the home farm in 1996 and was originally a sheep farmer.  At the beginning Liam was consistently building up ewe numbers but unfortunately the flock had a scrapie’s outbreak and he was forced to depopulate.  As a result of the scrapie’s outbreak he wasn’t permitted to get back into sheep for a number of years.  At this stage he was unsure what enterprise he would replace the sheep flock with.  In 2009 he saw an advertisement in the Farmers Journal from a dairy farmer looking for someone to rear his replacement heifers.  Liam rang the number and discussed a possible rearing agreement with Noel, a dairy farmer from Gort in Galway and he has been rearing his heifers ever since.  Liam’s farm is divided by a railway line and has a large proportion of natural boundaries.  This has allowed the farm to be divided up into independent blocks.  Due to the layout of the farm, Liam has been rearing for an average of three dairy farmers each year as he has managed to keep the groups from each farm in separate grazing blocks.  Good grassland management is one of Liam’s strong points and it is possible for the farm to be divided up into almost 60 individual paddocks – thus ensuring fresh grass is allocated daily and grass growth rates are maximised. 

Liam has taken stock at various stages from young calves that stayed until the second winter to bulling heifers that only remained with him for a single grazing season.  He has now made the decision that, going forward, he will only take stock for the grazing season and that they will return home to the dairy farms for the winter.  He has also decided that he will only take weaned calves.  With this new arrangement, he has still retained three out or the four farmers that he was rearing for last year.  These dairy farmers are very happy with the way their stock are being managed and are happy to continue the arrangements even with the new structure.