Daily life of a farmer

Taking care of livestock

Changing cattle: A herd with young calves is moved from one field to another where some fresh grass is available. The narrow spaces that the animals file through are called boreens.

On the Aran Islands, fields are small, surrounded by stone walls that serve as both boundaries and wind breaks. Cattle need to be "changed" regularly as most fields can not provide grazing for weeks. Depending on the number of cows, the herd is usually moved to new pasture every few days.

Boreens are communal laneways, just wide enough to let one animal at a time walk through them. Boreens connect different fields so that people can move their cattle without crossing their neighbours' land and need to be maintained regularly.

If farmers have someone to help, the changing is done quickly, with one person closing off potential turns by standing in front of them and the other one walking behind the animals, pushing them forward. The cows know their way.

There are no dairy cows on the islands as there is no easy way to transport the milk to the mainland. In the Blackstairs however, a few dairy farms exist. In the morning, the cows come into the milking parlour where they are given a small meal to keep them occupied. The udders are cleaned, the teats are stripped by hand and then suckers are being attached to the four teats to extract the milk. The piping system goes to a large tank where it is collected by the company that buys the milk off the farmer. After milking, the cows leave the parlour and are walked back to the pasture. Their calves are separated from their mothers after a day and thus need to be fed as well.

Communting cows: going back to the green grass after milking.

Feeding time: young calves sucking milk from a feeding station; the older ones are getting used to pellets; a farmer tries to get a newborn that was taken from his mother the day before to drink.

Sheep that are up on the mountain need to be checked as well. There are no natural predators that would pose a threat to the adult ones, but foxes are known to take newborn lambs. Farmers that use the commonage usually have a few working dogs that they bring with them when heading up to the mountain. The dogs are trained to follow voice commands and hand signals so that they are able to turn sheep in or away, seperate the herd, and collect stray ones.

A young sheep dog accompanies his master on the mountain.

Spring is the busiest time of the year as this is when all the calving and lambing happens. The farmers check on their animals every so often, which means most of them also get up every two to four hours at night. With some having a few hundred ewes to lamb, sleep is scarce. The lambing seasons lasts around six weeks. Cattle are a bit easier in this regard: By keeping a record, farmers can predict the time for cows to calve, roughly 280 days after they have been bulled. There are usually some outliers, though.

The annual TB testing is happening: Cows and their calves are rounded up for the vet.

When things are going well, no vet needs to be called to a calving. When things are not going so well, islanders have no other choice but to make do and help each other. The nearest vet lives on another island and by the time she would arrive, it might be too late. People generally call on their family to help - perhaps a brother or an in-law - but with calvings it is a bit different. Everybody knows the names of the handful of guys that "are good with cattle". They are the ones that will get called out in the middle of the night to assist with a calf that is not coming out.

Due to the remoteness of the island, cows that are "not easy calving" will be sold in the next year. Farmers on the island do not have easy access to external help and cannot afford losing a calf or cow.

Cattle on the mainland stay in sheds over the winter and are fed accordingly with hay, silage and pellets, whereas those on the islands live outdoors the whole year around.

The animals on the islands graze and are fed a small amount of hay or pellets. Most people do not even have a shed to store hay in.

You never run out of work on a farm. Something is always broken and needs to be fixed, the machinery needs maintenance, an animal is sick and needs extra care, a mess needs cleaning, there is always one more corner needs to be tidied up.

Another job for the farmer: Young claves need to be injected to prevent BHV-1 (bovine herpesvirus type). Sheep farmers will need to inject and dose their animals for different diseases several times a year.