Seven years on from an accident on his farm, which left him with a serious head injury, Dominic Leonard is looking to the future, building up his organic enterprise.
Leonard has a mixed 250ac farm, incorporating cattle, sheep, pigs and tillage, at Durrow, Co. Laois, with his wife, Ali Duck. The couple sell organic meat directly from their farm shop, as well as running tea rooms and hosting farm walks. They are also considering providing ‘glamping’ – glamorous camping – facilities.
It was a long and difficult road to recovery for Leonard, who is now focused on making the most of the farm’s scenic setting, by creating a destination experience.
He has no memory of the events of March 5, 2010. Leonard explained: “It was calving time, and what I have been told happened was that I went out to check the cows and see what was happening in the shed. I think I was trying to tag a calf, but hadn’t separated it from the cow.
The cow didn’t like what I was doing, and shoved me out of the way with her head. I cracked my skull against the wall.
“Luckily, I managed to get up to the house where my wife was carrying our son, Valentine, who was 10 days old, downstairs. Lucy, who was two at the time, was also with her.
“I was found by our daughter, Sorsha, who was six, and on her way to school. There was blood everywhere, and she thought I was dead.
“Ali called the ambulance, and the last time the kids saw me for weeks was when I was taken away to the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise,” Leonard said.
“Luckily there was a bed free in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, so I was transferred there and operated on that morning. I was put in an induced coma for two weeks. After I started to wake up, I developed a brain infection, so was put back into a coma for another few weeks.”
Then Leonard was brought back to the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, which made it easier for family and other visitors, but created the difficulty of not having specialism in head injuries.
“Beaumont wanted to send me to the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, but I wasn’t well enough to go directly there,” Leonard said.
He then spent approximately five weeks in the National Rehabilitation Hospital. Meanwhile, things were a “bit chaotic” on the farm, with seed arriving from England and crops going in.
“Poor Ali had to learn how to run the farm as I had done everything. We were lucky that a local man had been working part-time on the farm, and he was brought in to work full-time for a year and a half. Neighbours and other people were brilliant and helped out wherever they could.”
Financially, it was also a nightmare situation, as Leonard explained.
The farm bank account was in my name, and luckily, we had an understanding bank manager, who made allowances.
When he was returned home in the summer, the difficulties continued. “I wasn’t able to make decisions; my balance was off, and I was generally all over the place. Emotionally I couldn’t cope with the children.
“It took a long time for me to get back to work. I was able to potter around, but it was pretty minimal. Fatigue was a big issue – I had to rest a couple of times a day to get through the day. It took a year and a half at least to get back to normality.”
They invested approximately €200,000 in: a purpose-built unit to incorporate a meat processing facility; weekend tea rooms; and a farm shop. It was supported by LEADER funding and a grant from the Department of Agriculture’s organic unit.
“This is our third year open and we are noticing a bit of an improvement. We seem to be moving in the right direction.
“We had been selling organic meat directly from the farm for a number of years, so we are expanding this business because of the pricing difficulties in the factories. We deliver to a small number of people in Dublin, but a lot of our business is relatively local.
“We have been an organic demonstration farm for the Department of Agriculture for the past four years. We are promoting our guided farm walks, walking trails, and the idea of a destination experience.
“Ali uses social media to get the word out, and word of mouth is fantastic. People keep coming back, which is a good endorsement.
“While Laois may not be a tourist hot spot, a lot has been done to enhance the area locally. The annual Durrow Scarecrow Festival is highly successful, and Castle Durrow Country House Hotel brings a lot of people to the area. A lot of development work has been done locally.”
With their fingers in a lot of pies, it’s a busy lifestyle for the couple, with no days off.
French students and people who come through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) help out, and we have been lucky to have had some wonderful people.
“We have had one or two bad experiences, where people had to be asked to leave, but we’ve been availing of the service for nearly 10 years now and we are very fortunate to have had some fantastic people, with whom we keep in touch.”
Leonard is positive about progress, saying: “It’s still relatively early days in our expansion. The fact that we have got this far, and that things are looking up, is reasonable. We would like to develop further and look at accommodation – such as ‘glamping’. We are very lucky that the land is in a scenic location, which lends itself very well to farm stays.
“We would also like to do more vegetable growing, but it’s hard to cover everything, as Ali does all the cooking for the tea rooms which are open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
Fortunate to be back with his family on the land after the accident, Leonard said the reality is that complacency is one of the biggest issues in farming. “Farmers are doing the same thing, day in, day out, and they are doing it for years. It becomes semi-automatic.
We don’t tend to step back from doing something and ask whether it is safe.
“The whole problem nowadays for many farmers is having less money, and trying to do more, with less. We are also pushing ourselves with longer hours. It all contributes to danger, essentially.”