An artificial insemination (AI) technician with Munster Bovine, Connie O’Driscoll provides a unique service for farmers in Co. Cork.
While the majority of Connie’s work takes place between Skibbereen and the Mizen peninsula, when he gets a call from one of the farmers off the west Cork coast, he is more than happy to oblige them.
Connie has nine customers between the three islands of Sherkin, Heir, and Long, who have approximately 30 suckler cows between them.
The west Cork native said: “When I’m heading to Turkhead pier to go to Sherkin or whichever pier I’m going to go, some fella will ask me where I’m going.
“I tell them I’m going abroad, and they say for how long?
“Oh for about half an hour,” Connie replies.
When asked by Agriland if he would need a passport for the trip, Connie replied: “Just the rebel passport.”
Providing a service
For these trips, Connie departs the mainland and enters Roaring Water Bay by boat to travel to the islands to fulfill his duties as an AI technician, regardless of the scale of the task ahead.
He said: “As it happens, because they’re small herds I’d often have to leave for the sake of one cow, but so be it, it’s part of my responsibility, part of my area; I’m happy to do it.
“I’ve a good relationship with the guys on the island and I go to them and oblige them because a lot of them don’t want to keep a bull in this day and age for a small herd.”
Connie was one of a family of seven, born and reared on a small farm overlooking the Fastnet Rock and Carbery’s Hundred Isles, which gave him a unique connection from his youth, and therefore a sense of duty towards the islands and the islanders.
Connie said of the islanders: “They’re as entitled to have a service as much as some of my biggest dairy farmers.
“I’m dead happy, I’ve been doing it for years.”
AI on the islands
When asked by Agriland if he is ever nervous during the crossing to the islands, Connie said: “I was reared within a hundred yards of the sea, so the sea is second nature to us.”
As a precaution, Connie brings a smaller tank to perform the AI on the island to avoid risking any damage to the bigger one.
“I take the tank and the thawing flask and they’re safe enough, we have them secure in the boat,” he said.
“For a trip I would do either an early call or a late call,” he continued.
“On that particular photo, that’s a really early call on the most beautiful June morning, I think we were there at 6:30a.m.
“It was beautiful, peaceful, perfect before I got into my busy morning schedule at that time.”
The crossing would take 10-15 minutes, with Connie and the farmers then travelling by car on the island to drive to where the cow is, with the whole process generally lasting two hours.
Connie said: “A lot of the calls with the islanders tend to be off season.”
When asked what farmers would do in the event of the weather being unsuitable for a boat crossing from the mainland, Connie said: “They would forego a heat in a cow if the weather isn’t suitable, but nine times out of 10, we go there.
“But they make that choice; I’d never say no to them because I trust them 100% with my life.”
Connie said he is “proud to bring the best of beef genetics available in the country through Munster Bovine to the most remote locations in west Cork”.
West Cork islanders
Connie said he has the utmost respect for the farmers who he provides the AI service for and said the islanders are “the most interesting of people and the greatest of survivors”.
“I’ve known these guys over the years and I know the next generation too.
“I started in 1979. I’m now seeing the third generation on some farms which is absolutely brilliant. They breed really good beef cattle, and dealers like buying cattle off islands for some reason.
“I’ve heard this for many years, cattle from islands thrive really well. Whatever is in the grass on the island from the salt and the sea and everything else, they seem to thrive.
“Not ignoring the fact that they are bred from really good Munster sires.”
As well as being an AI technician with Munster Bovine, Connie is an organic suckler and sheep farmer and also owns a business – the Townhouse gastropub in Schull.
Connie started the business in 2019, calling it “a little side show” and he exemplifies the meaning of ‘farm to fork’ by supplying his business with his own organic beef and lamb.
Starting out as an organic farmer in west Cork, Connie was sometimes met with the question from locals – ‘I heard you were an organic farmer, why isn’t there flowers painted on the side of your van?’.
Somehow Connie manages to fit all of this into his busy schedule, with the busiest period of AI in the area lasting roughly 12-14 weeks, starting in the morning at 6:30a.m and finishing up at 10:00p.m.
The most important part of this hectic period, according to Connie, is the interaction with his customers on the mainland and beyond.
“I’d always say to fellas, if we don’t have two minutes to chat to you, then we might as well stay at home, because the day that we don’t have time to talk to our customers, we might as well stop,” he said.