About our Farm

We are a family owned Farm here in Northwest Co Kildare Ireland.
We’ll be here 75 years in the spring of 2023. My Grand parents moved from Leitrim when my father was 3. The farm reared that family of 9 kids. Then my father Chris and Uncle JohnJoe and their families

It was initially a mixed farm like all farms in the 40-50s. Then when it reached its maximum output in the 80’s Chris and Johnjoe were milking 100cows and rearing all the offspring to beef.

Milking stopped in the mid 2000s I’m not sure ill have check that for sure. But the lads were getting on and none of us were showing any interest. A few bits of bad luck like TB and Brucelosis were the final straw for the cows. Then the lads switched to a suckler herd and calf to beef as well.

It was a great place to grow up. Every summer was silage time when the cousins would muck in on our farm and us on theirs! You couldn’t ask for a better childhood.

Right now our focus is on Beef as the primary enterprise. We use regenerative farming methods as our aim is encourage biodiversity.

Our Mission

When I came back to farming I did so maybe with some romantic vision of re-creating that atmosphere like which I grew up in. With the Beef industry as it was that was going to take some doing

After a few years of practising regenerative agriculture (initially to reduce costs) I realized we were actually doing something really special! As I was beginning to see the farm as an ecosystem not a factory with isolated components to be squeezed

 

So, if I could sum up, Our mission at fat of the land is to;

 

Regenerate the land

Connect with the people

Grow together in natures pattern

 

By using agro-ecological techniques build biodiversity and sequester carbon.

By reaching out to our customers we want to educate people as to what it takes to produce amazing food. Also to share and the magic that comes from doing that community rather than just pumping out commodities

By studying ecology we realize that the the best descriptive of plant communities is Co-operation not Competition. So it is with Human communities, We grow best when we use our self interest in service of the whole.

 

In that spirit we are offering a way to become part of the change we want to see in the world, by eating the land healthy.

I want our efforts to be a bridge back to a connection with the land that all Irish people have.

I want to foster a culture of appreciation for Irish Grass-fed Beef and farming in general

Most of all we hope to create a farm and an example that excites the next generation into farming and if not at least make them proud of the generations that came before them

New Direction

Our family as with most families in agricultural Ireland in the 80’s were raised on the Fat of the land. Specifically grass derived!

Sounds very glamorous but that was all there was!

The western diet has changed things but not for the better.

Finally modern science is catching up to mother nature in recognizing, among other things, that pasture derived animal fats have amazing chemical properties! Specifically the ratio of Omega 3 to 6.

So by eating what you need to be healthy you are creating a demand for grass-fed beef you’re creating a demand for more pastures to feed them. Its a virtuous cycle.