Agricultural college will get you ready for road ahead, says Castlehaven farmer Cian

A FARMER from West Cork who claimed the student of the year prize at Darrara believes the college experience is an invaluable help for young farmers embarking on their career.

Cian Hourihane is from Castlehaven outside Skibbereen, where he works the family dairy farm with his father. Cian’s enthusiasm and aptitude for farming was evident throughout his time at Teagasc Clonakilty College, where he graduated with a Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Agriculture. He was the recipient of the Clonakilty Ag College Student of the Year award in 2023, and was a finalist at the Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year Awards, which took place on Tuesday, May 21st.

‘The course was a great experience. There were around 35 students in my class, coming from West Cork and other parts of the county as well as some students from Kerry. I learned a lot of things that I am putting into practice now with my father on the farm,’ said Cian.

‘You have to have a love of farming first of all. When I was younger I didn’t have as much interest. But Covid put it in perspective what it means to be your own boss. And working on the farm, every day is different.’

As part of the course, he was on work placement on the farm of Charles Dullea in Clonakilty, an experience he relished and where he learned the practical skills to manage a farm.

He learned a lot over the course of his time working with Charles, on everything from crush facilities, drafting for AI, to advanced safety features.

From his time in college, Cian is introducing some of the lessons learned into the farm. He and his father have adjusted the breeding, introducing Jerseys, while milk recording has helped find cows with high cell counts. Litres per cow have increased, solids have increased and the herd Economic Breeding Index (EBI) has increased by €20 annually.

Cian is a fourth generation farmer from Castlehaven. He is following in the footsteps of his great grandfather Gerry O’Sullivan, the first of the family who worked the farm.

These days Cian and his father Noel have taken on the mantle, and in September they are embarking on a major hedgerow planting initiative, based on sound sustainable principles Cian developed while in Darrara.

They combine their 15-strong dairy herd on their 50 acres with work in the tiling business. How do manage it?

‘With great difficulty!’ jokes Cian. ‘We can try make time for both. We do a milk in the morning and a milk in the evening and that allows us to concentrate on the tiling during part of the day.’

Cian spent time in New Zealand after completing his studies, on a working holiday.

‘I was on a vegetable farm, which was growing things like broccoli, lettuce, squash. It was on a massive scale.

‘Over there, the fields would be considered small if they were 20 hectares!’

It was very interesting to see the systems they had there, with some features already picking up traction over on this side of the world.

‘The use of GPS on tractors is very big. And you can see it’s already starting to come in here, used for things like spreading.’

In March, Cian returned from New Zealand and is now firmly back in the life on the farm. It’s a busy schedule between farming and tiling. But when time allows, Cian engages in his passion for vintage motorbikes. He has six vintage bikes, with a 1968 Honda CD 175 to pick of his bunch.

Cian with his vintage motorbikes - a 1976 Yamaha YB100; a 1976 Honda 125S and a 1972 Honda 350. (Photo: Andy Gibson)

‘There is great freedom on the bike. It’s nice to take a trip out to Kinsale, or maybe to head west to Goleen,’ says Cian.

Karen O’Connell, assistant principal at Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College paid tribute to Cian. ‘Cian was a fantastic student and was awarded student of the year based on a combination of his exceptional exam results and his commitment to the programme.

‘During his time in the college Cian worked hard – both academically and practically, displayed a great interest in  agriculture and farming and was an excellent classmate to his cohort of students.

‘We were very proud to have Cian represent the college and the greater West Cork farming community in the National Student of the Year awards recently. We would like to wish Cian success in his next steps of his career.’