Ciaran Carragher – Heifer contract rearing
Ciaran is a part time farmer in Co. Louth 
He comes from a dairy farm but he took on his uncle’s farm in 2013. He was finishing beef cattle but was not making a substantial profit and two years ago he decided to change to contract rearing.
Main motivations include:
- To make money
- Always had a love for farming.
- ‘Great way to bring up kids, had a lot of positive experiences from growing up on a farm and wanted to let my own children grow up on a far. Great life experience growing up on a farm’
- ‘Also like it for myself for a change to what I’m working at’
Success factors include:
- ‘Training and education I would have got, both formal and informal’ – Green Cert with Teagasc and then informal from the home farm and uncle
- Facilities already on the farm
- Good will from uncle
Key hurdles:
- Labour – hard to get labour. When start/takeover new farm business there is a lot of work required
- Access to money/finance
Recommendations:
Succession planning for both parties. Should be well incentivised (roll out succession planning in discussion groups)