A Laois farm family has been busy getting ready to reopen its open farm on Saturday, May 1.
In the summer of 2018, the Saunders family from Ross, Cullahill, converted from an intensive beef finishing operation, to a large open farm.
“It was hard enough to stay motivated when we were closed during the lockdowns. It was also hard to gauge stock levels in the café and shop as we were never really certain when we could open or close,” said 23-year-old Jack, who runs the venture alongside his parents Stephen, a builder, and Margaret.
This resulted in the café stock going out of date, he said. However, they focused on building up their offering.
“We have added lots of extra outdoor seating including two new shelters. We have also added a new overflow playground to aid in social distancing between families. There are also a couple of new roadways to nice little picnic areas added since last year,” Jack said.
“On the animal side of things, we have recently added a peacock; giant rabbits; a skunk and a herd of pedigree Simmental cows. The sheep have lambed, all having twins. The Simmentals have all calved except for one that is due mid-May. Our two remaining Highland cows have become favourites, and will hopefully be calving end of May/early June.
“I am more or less farming fulltime now. The cows have been keeping me busy alongside the new construction on the open farm. The calves are all pedigree so are in the process of being halter trained for shows and sales.
“I am also still buying cows to build the herd up so my eye is on the sales. We have ten cows and calves so far, with three heifers and a cow yet to calve. The aim is to get this to 20 calving-down next spring,” he continued.
“In order to facilitate the cows, I have leased a support block for silage and grazing of young stock. Land was hard to find so I had to be prepared to travel for it. I housed heifers and grazed them there until a couple of weeks ago. It’s now fertilised and closed up for silage.
“We are reopening the open farm for weekends and bank holidays, from 11:00a.m-6:00p.m until school holidays. We are working with a walk-in system to start as we have such a large capacity with the new areas added.
“Our café will be running as a takeaway, which has had a menu change to suit. As we are mostly outside, we will be almost running at 100% in line with Covid-19 guidelines, except for the indoor play area which will be closed until more restrictions lift,” Jack said.
Castleview open farm is set on 14ac, with an additional 2ac of sheds and a farmyard. Jack’s mother closed the Airbnb Castleview lodge that was part of the initial venture.
“It was a fierce amount of work for the reward, and with the lockdowns the way they are, it was going to be hard to make it viable. It’s now let to a lovely couple on a full- time basis,” Jack said.
“I have found the whole open farm experience to be good so far overall, but I wouldn’t encourage going down this route unless you could do the building and running of the business yourself.
“It’s still a seven day a week job as it stands. You have to be willing to make a lot of sacrifices, the same as any venture. I have learned an awful lot since the beginning and I am grateful for all the experiences so far,” he concluded.