The Southern Star and Celtic Ross Hotel West Cork Farming Awards winner for the month of August is Ronald Shorten from Lisvaird.
FARMING is a vocation and you have to take the good times with the challenges and have confidence things will work out.
So says dairy farmer Ronald Shorten who is August’s winner of The Southern Star’s West Cork Farming Awards. No stranger to accolades, the Lisavaird supplier was the runner-up in the prestigious NDC/Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards last year.
He’s been farming at Woodfield, near Clonakilty since he left school in the late 70s but never for one moment does the father-of-three assume he knows it all, and he’s very open to new innovations, technologies and ways of working.
In particular, Ronald who farms with his son Brian and wife Betty, has been lauded for being a frontrunner in embracing sustainable farming practices, before they ever became mandatory.
Ronald, Betty and Brian Shorten on their dairy farm in Woodfield, West Cork. (Photo: Andy Gibson)
He’s been well ahead of the curve in this way of thinking and installed a 11Kw wind turbine on his land 11 years ago when such technology was barely on the agricultural radar.
It produces around 24k units of electricity a year. The family uses around two thirds between the household and the farm, and they export the remaining third to the grid, for 19c a unit.
He’s a Carbery monitor farmer, he uses sexed semen on 100% of the breeding stock to generate high value female replacements, and in the latest TAMS, he hopes to install solar panels on a south-facing shed before next year, along with installing batteries.
But Ronald modestly brushes off any suggestion he’s a bit of a visionary. Instead he says he does the research, and if it makes sense and importantly makes a return, it’s up for consideration
He didn’t lick that mentality from a stone. His late father Jack put a lot of emphasis on breeding through AI and was one of the first Lisavaird Co-op suppliers to invest in a milk tank, at a time when most milk was transported by churn.
Jack’s winter milk went to Carbery on a Baileys Crème Liqueur contract in the late 70s and 80s.
When Ronald came on board, they expanded the herd from 40 cows to around 60, which was a significant size for that time.
Today he has a herd of 120, with a dual calving, Autumn/ Spring system, and he’s one of around 28 Lisavaird suppliers who supply Winter milk.
The Shortens also grow crops in a bid to enhance their sustainability: ‘We grow around 15 acres of barley, 15 acres of maize and four acres of fodder beet and we’re also trying to grow more clover silage,’ said Ronald.
Clover silage is higher quality and has a greater protein content for the winter herd, he explains, and crucially cuts down on the need for imported soya feed and cuts down on nitrogen usage.
The DMD (Dry Matter Digestibility, used to estimate the energy of the silage) of their first cut last year was an impressive 78%, with the second and third cuts coming in at 68% and 69% respectively.
‘The protein is usually around 13-15%. As a result we are buying in less feed. Last year we used four tonne less soya bean feed saving money and also helping the environment,’ he said.
He feels there’s a lot of untapped potential in alternative energies, particularly hydrogen.
‘Water is the only emission from it, and if managed correctly it could replace a lot of diesel and petrol,’ said Ronald who drives a hybrid vehicle himself. He was one of the hundreds of farmers who attended the recent IFA nitrates derogation rally in Bandon Co-op and he implored EU policy makers to ‘think of the bigger picture’ when making its decision.
‘Of course it goes without saying that we need to protect our environment and our water, and do everything we can do in the climate battle. Carbon must be managed in a way that is cost effective but that will also work.
‘But research has shown that bringing the derogation down to 220 will not do anything for the water quality, and if farmers aren’t able to produce milk and food here, it will just come from some place that’s doing it less sustainably. It makes no sense, there’s no logic, and the government, I think, are doing it purely for the sake of its image and not thinking of how it affects the farming families,’ he said.
Dropping milk prices is another concern.
‘Globally, dairy is in surplus, China isn’t back to the market yet in the same numbers since before Covid, and the US and the continent have pushed up their supplies. I am concerned but compared to other countries, we have a low cost, grass based system and I’d remain confident prices will pick up.
‘The bottom line is that people will always have to be fed. But what is concerning is research being done in the US that is producing food from a petri dish. That’s obviously not a direction we’d like to see things going in,’ he said.
Innovations aside, his emphasis and passion is producing top quality milk from top quality animals.
His favourite thing about farming is being in nature: ‘I love to see an animal thriving and producing well. I love being out in nature, and love to see newly-introduced flocks of buzzards in the area, and find it really satisfying to walk the land and see the crops grow.’
When he’s not working on the farm, he enjoys swimming indoors and at local beaches. His eldest son Andrew works in hotel management in Claridge’s, London and youngest son Mark works in the technology sector in Cloudera in Cork. As well as farming Brian has a part-time job with Cow Manager.
Ronald and Brian, are the third and fourth generation to farm the land, originally purchased by Ronald’s grandfather in the 1930s.
Winning The Southern Star West Cork Farming award, he said, is a real honour, a good endorsement and good motivation.
How does he feel about the future of farming?
‘Farming is a vocation. You have to like it and you have to take the ups with the downs, the good times with the challenges.
‘And for sure there are more challenges now then there ever were, and there’s an awful lot happening at the same. But we’ve overcome difficulties in the past, that’s the nature of what we do, and we’ll do it again. We just need time, and things will come right hopefully.’
Why we love West Cork farming
Shane McCarthy, AIB Agri TeamSHANE McCARTHY, AIB, agri advisor for Cork and Kerry, talks about the importance of agriculture to AIB and the outlook for the sector
‘THE West Cork farming awards, which highlight and feature the finest in farming in West Cork, are a partnership that AIB is thrilled to continue to support.
‘We place great importance on agriculture as it is a substantial component of our business, and we foresee its continued significance in the future.
‘It is by far our largest SME sector for new lending in our branches. In Cork alone, agri accounts for over 40% of our lending to SME customers through our branches and for some individual branches, particularly our rural ones, this figure is a lot higher.
‘Much has changed in the sector since the last West Cork Farming Awards with the implementation of new policies and regulations and also falling output prices.
‘From the highs of 2022 with strong output prices across many sectors, 2023 will be more subdued.
Output prices have been on a downward trend in most sectors with input costs remaining stubbornly high.
‘However, while the outlook for 2023 is not as positive as this time last year, the sector overall remains in a reasonably good position.
‘From our long-standing involvement in the farming sector here in AIB, we know that farmers and the entire sector possess remarkable resilience.
‘Farmers want to produce high- quality, safe, traceable, and sustainable food while actively seeking ways to contribute positively to the environment by reducing emissions and enhancing carbon efficiency.
‘To achieve these objectives farmers, require access to appropriate technology, support and guidance, which we are dedicated to providing.
‘We know that we are in a time of significant change that there will be challenges ahead and I want to take this opportunity to reaffirm AIB’s position in the agrimarket.
‘Agri is a significant part of our business and will continue to be in the future.’
Know somebody deserving of a West Cork Farming Award?
Monthly award winners could be a farmer, someone working in agri-business, agri-entrepreneurship, a farming organisation or even someone involved in education or research and development. The awards panel will be looking for examples of great work, innovation and overall contribution to West Cork farming and agricultural life.
If you would like to suggest someone to be considered for a monthly farming award, please contact us by email on [email protected] or call 028 21200
