Therése & Bill O’Keeffe

Therése and Bill O’Keeffe are full-time conventional dairy and beef farmers on 111 hectares (275 ac) in Ballynoe, Co. Cork. Milking 60 cows and rearing 250 beef cattle, they credit their successful business to their observation-based approach. Farming for over 40 years, they ‘have always been of the mindset of extensive than intensive’ and that ‘you don't have to hammer your land with inputs’.

With varying types of soil from dry with shale to black soil to loam to manage, they’re still able to finish their beef animals at 18 months. They point to their animals ability to thrive on older grasses and using bigger breeds like the British Friesian bred to Angus bulls .

They haven’t ploughed a field in over 25 years, using top seeding instead to avoid spraying off fields. They treat their slurry with a biological additive to increase the nutrient value while also using chemical nitrogen sparingly.

They are in ACRES and were participants in the BRIDE project which saw them install a pond alongside a waterway running through their land, where they ‘recently found an eel there down there for the first time in 50 years’ and see huge amounts of frogspawn in the Springtime. They’ve allowed previously drained bog to naturally rewet and have planted trees with more to come. They’ve never cut their whitethorn trees and appreciate the value in minimal hedgerow maintenance ‘We know our animals thrive when they have the shelter of a hedgerow, they eat the brambles and all, and it seems to have a benefit to their health’.

NOMINATOR: Andrea McCann, BASE Ireland
NOMINATION:
Therése & her husband Bill milk cows near Ballynoe in Co.Cork. They run an AA bull & finish the calves to beef. Therése follows Albrecht’s principles. Soil & water quality are at the centre of every decision. Herd health is paramount & Therése believes that animal health is very strongly linked to soil health. Bill makes all of their forage himself so that the grass is baled in optimum condition. They have treated slurry for years & follow the slurry with Physiolith. No bagged fert is used until April or May. Having already participated in the BRIDE Project, they are now in ACRES. Therése is actively looking at agroforestry including trees for water, native trees & silvopasture. Therése is incredibly knowledgeable & passionate and always willing to share that knowledge.