(1) 1947

The idea of the local creamery acquiring Dovea House and farm originated in a lecture by Dr H Kennedy given in 1944. After the lecture the owner of Dovea House --- a typical Big House owned by a far from typical Captain Trant --- interviewed Dr Kennedy and suggested that if he and his wife might live out their time in a wing of the Big House, and the woods and other amenities of the property were preserved, he would be disposed to sell the farm to the Centenary Creamery Society for co-operative cultivation and use.

The latter had the wit and enterprise to take the offer, and the deal was completed on very reasonable financial terms. Dovea Farm had formerly consisted of some 2,000 acres, but had been pruned by the Land Commission for the purpose of creating, at the national expense, the usual 20 to 30 acre "economic" holdings.

The 200 arable acres that were left required more intensive cultivation and management than the owner felt able to provide, if an adequate output was to be secured, hence his very sensible and public-spirited offer. All this happened in 1944.

In Inland memories are long and the way of the pioneer in social organisation is not easy. About 100 years ago the agent of an ancestor of Captain Trant was shot and a couple of local persons were made amenable and hanged though widely believed innocent. That, of course, was in the bad old days.

Some misguided persons, doubtless exploiting this age-old grievance, thought it would be a good idea to burn the hay belonging to the Co-operative Society, which was situated in a hay-barn at the Big House. Presumably, the object was to convince all concerned that dividing up the 200 acre farm would be a better national policy than cultivating it collectively as proposed.

However, this contretemps was successfully overcome. The members of the Creamery Society provided each a certain amount of hay to replace what was lost, and some silage that had been made on the spot proved an efficient substitute for the time being, thereby convincing the farm manager that silage was good cattle feed -- a thing about which he had been doubtful before.

The net effect of all this is that there were in 1947 three separate menages installed in the Big House premises -- Captain and Mrs Trant, the farm steward, with four of the 16 workers -- and a posse of Civic Guards. Apart from all this, relations with the immediate neighbours are most friendly.

When I visited the farm in 1947 there were 40 heifers and 40 bullocks as well as 16 cows on the land -- a reasonably high proportion of stock to acreage -- but since that date the number of cattle, and especially of cows, has increased substantially. Sixteen workers were in permanent employment in 1946 at a wage of 52/6 per week, plus firewood, plus housing and milk. The money deduction from the wages of those who lived in the Big House was 12/6 weekly.

These perquisites are a substantial addition to the money wage, and the real wage is very much in excess of the standard minimum. An employment density of eight persons to 100 acres of crops and pasture is high for the larger Irish farms, but has since been exceeded here and elsewhere.

In addition to the permanent workers, who live in the Big House (the unmarried ones) or in cottages round about the farm, if they happen to be married, the creamery provides extra manpower at busy times -- a kind of shock troops -- by switching some of the permanent employees and transporting them for temporary work on the farm -- a matter of five or six miles.

The economy of such an arrangement is obvious, especially if one bears in mind that Irish creameries only work to full capacity during the summer months, and have, therefore, surplus workers available during the winter months.

If one asks how this 200 acre farm can support a wage bill which must approximate to £3,000 a year, the answer is capital equipment, cooperative solidarity and good farm management.

The farm had in 1947 two tractors, costing £300 each, a threshing machine, costing £600; two binders, costing £100 each; two two-furrow ploughs, costing, £50 each; two disc-harrows, costing £60 each; besides a number of horses and the usual equipment of horse-drawn implements.

Even before buying the farm the creamery had acquired a number of expensive agricultural machines, the use of which was hired out to members. Having their own farm enabled this service to he extended considerably and provides a convenient centre for storing, marshaling and "servicing" the farm machines. About 25 per cent of the tractor's time was on hire.

Grass cultivation was and is the primary activity on this farm. About 10 acres per annum are being re-seeded, while old pasture is being subjected to the traditional treatment with slag and semsol. The results are being noted and compared. There is no controversy about the supreme value of a close-growing sward of first-class pasture, but the best way to get that cheapest and best of all animal feeds is a matter of controversy. The data then in process of being obtained at Dovea farm illuminated this problem.

Poultry had not yet made an appearance there 1947. Pigs were in evidence -- one boar and six sows providing a possible output of 120 pigs a year. Ten acres of potatoes were being grown. A normal yield from this acreage of potatoes, plus surplus skim milk, would go a long way towards feeding 120 pigs.

Dovea Farm is well provided with hay-sheds, and farm buildings. Within one of the existing hay-sheds a number of concrete silos for grass silage was being constructed. The idea was to have the advantage of a roof over the silos (rain is is bad for silage). The space between the top of the silos and the roof of the hay-shed was packed with hay in due course. The weight of the hay helps to compress the silage.

Dovea Farm is not, perhaps, a co-operative farm in the generally accepted sense of that term. The persons actually working the farm are employees of a co-operative creamery society, consisting of farmers living within a radius of perhaps 5 or 10 miles from the Central Creamery. The farm employees are not necessarily members of the Co-operative Society.

Nevertheless, their spirit is fully co-operative and the quality and quantity of their work leave nothing to be desired.

(2) 1948.

The Ballyduff Co-operative Creamery is officially known as the Centenary Creamery because it was founded in 1898. If one is lucky enough to find Mr. O'Mahony on the premises one has reached the fountain-head of information about the creamery and the creamery-owned Dovea Farm. The latter is situated some five miles on the other side of Thurles. The "Centenary" is one of the larger creameries, having a milk supply of some one-and-a-half million gallons. Its total turnover qua creamery approximates to £2503000, and consists, as to about half, of dairy produce sales, and as to the other half, of sales of "agricultural goods."

In August, 1948, the operative staff on the farm was still sixteen, which is rather a high number for a 200 statute acre farm. But some of the workers are skilled at building and construction, and a high proportion of the time and labour of all was spent on works of permanent improvement. The farm is really equipped and stated to cultivate a larger acreage than 200. Actually, it was possible to rent 120 additional acres of conacre in the 1948 season.

Since my visit in August, 1947, the number of cows had gone up from 16 to 30, and there were also 35 in-calf heifers, 35 heifers eighteen months old, and about 40 large bullocks. The aim is to keep the maximum number of cows, rear all their progeny, and sell the surplus males as stores or fat. But as a result of intensive cultivation, manuring, re-seeding, and successful preservation of silage by the new AIV process, the feeding capacity of the farm is now such that numerous animals must be bought in for fattening to supplement those it has been possible to rear on the farm. With 160 tons of well made hay and the contents of six silos full of AIV preserved grass it was possible to feed a considerable number of dry stock as well as cows during the winter of 1948/49.

Pig production was being maintained with one boar and four sows. There were, however, six sows there in 1947.

Poultry did not figure at all. There are too many foxes about. This is a serious limiting factor on poultry production in many parts of Ireland, and sooner or later something drastic will have to be done about it on a large scale.

As for crops -- there were, in August 1948, 9 acres under potatoes, 35 under wheat, 10 under oats and 20 under roots, including beet. Much of this tillage was done on the conacre "take" of 120 acres, but, even so, the number of cows and large dry stock per 100 acres of crops and pasture is very high.

It would be quite impossible to aim at such intensive production had it not been for the success of their experiments in re-seeding worn out pastures and preserving grass silage. About a year ago the creamery manager and his colleagues were ploughing up and reseeding some old pastures while attempting to revive others by the application of suitable artificial manures without ploughing, and were comparing results. They are now convinced that ploughing up and re-seeding is the best. The other method improves the grass, too, but was also said to improve the weeds.

I have observed some of these re-seeded pastures at Dovea and elsewhere and have been much impressed by their appearance. More important still, the local farmers also observe them, and are disposed to imitate them in their own practice.

These creamery-operated farms are of the utmost educational value, precisely because they are run, on a commercial basis, and are designed to show that scientific farming is also the most profitable farming. The ordinary farmer is more impressed by a favourable profit and loss account than by demonstrations carried on at the taxpayers' expense. I am glad to notice that Dovea Farm was able to show a net profit on trading account in 1947 of £105 7s. 4d. That was arrived at after charging to a single year seeds, manures, and feeding stuffs, worth £1,837 14s. 7d., much of the value of which can be realised only in the course of four or five years.

.As for equipment, in addition to the tractors etc in evidence in 1947, they had acquired a grass "pick up" for collecting freshly-cut silage grass in the swathe and a silage elevator for feeding it into the silo when it had reached the farm-yard. Tractor power, harnessed to implements like these, solves the problem of collecting, transporting, and storing silage grass. The ordinary small farmer is often defeated by the practical difficulties connected with silage making. If he is to solve them he must have the use of modern implements and access to tractor power. The creamery-owned Dovea Farm demonstrates the machinery in operation on its own farm and hires it out to the Society's own members when wanted.

(3) 1949

Even a casual observer of Irish agricultural phenomena must realise that we are passing through a veritable agricultural revolution. Government policy is playing a significant part in this process, but beneath the surface a still more significant force has been in operation which is a salutary example of co-operatively organised private enterprise.

Within the last decade certain creameries in the south-western counties acquired farms which they exploit under expert management in conjunction with their major.activities. One such is Mitchelstown. Drinagh, Milford, Dungarvan and Kanturk are other notable examples. Here we are concerned with the further history of Dovea Creamery Farm.

During the war years, when there was an acute scarcity of expensive labour-economising agricultural machinery, this Creamery Farm hired out to its members the occasional use of the power machines which it maintained and "serviced". In 1949 there was no similar scarcity. But there are certain operations, now in demand on farms of all sizes, which require not only expert supervision, but specialised machines which ordinary farmers are not likely to possess.

Such operations are, for example, the production of first-class grass silage and the re-seeding of old pasture. This Creamery Farm makes available to its individual members on their own farms not only the necessary machines, but the expert supervision without which disappointing results are apt to be obtained. In this and in other ways it is promoting a more intensive agriculture and a higher output per man and per acre in all the regions affected by its activities.

The Creamery Manager and farm steward took me round and showed me, among other livestock, 37 cows and 74 in-calf heifers. It seemed a huge proportion of in-calf heifers, but, they explained, many of these heifers would be sold as springers to their members, and in that way the quality of the cows kept in the whole neighbourhood was being graded up.

The farm did not look for any direct profit from this transaction, but the creamery would benefit from an increasing milk supply. This, is a solid contribution to the increase of the real national income -- a process in which all are deeply interested. Actually, the milk supply here and elsewhere has been increasing very substantially in recent years, and this is one of the causes of that very desirable increase. In 1948 it exceeded by 150 gallons per cow the yield obtained in 1945 in this creamery area.

There are about 200 arable acres in the farm in question but, to accommodate the increasing stock and the substantial area of tillage, it was found necessary, as already mentioned, to take in a conacre letting of 120 statute acres of other land. It looks as if the economic unit for the kind of intensive highly mechanised farming practised on this farm is much more than 200 acres.

Indeed, the Mitchelstown farm has also found that its small size cramps its style. Both farms could operate more economically and more scientifically if they had about 500 acres each of their own to use. In the light of these experiences it seems desirable that Land Commission policy should be revised. The whole economic position of small family farms (which must remain the prevailing type) would be strengthened if every significant agricultural area contained at least one large farm operated on lines similar to these.

The output of the farm consists mainly of milk, cattle and pigs, but crop sales account for about 30 per cent of sales off the farm, and wheat for about two-thirds of crop sales. The 37 cows are milked by five men, without a milking machine. Altogether, 12 permanent and 6 casual workers are now employed, which is a high proportion of "persons occupied" per 100 acres of crops and pasture. In the country as a whole the ratio is about 6 persons. On small farms it is much higher, but much family labour on very small farms is notoriously underemployed.

Gross output per acre (including the conacre letting) appears to be of the order of £30. This compares very favourably with the average of £23 6s. 0d. for 296 Northern Ireland farms which kept accounts in 1947-48. "Net Output" would probably exceed £20 per acre. Even if the farm itself showed no net profit the financial outlook with regard to it need cause no-one sleepless nights. What it loses on the swings the creamery -- and the country -- will gain on the roundabouts, and I don't think it is losing anything on the swings either.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999