Join us for our dairy social night at the Charleville Park hotel on Monday evening the 7th of January, where after a gala dinner, former IGA president Paul Hyland will chat to two very interesting individuals, Michael Ward a successful businessman from Co. Roscommon and Christopher Cahill recently crowned FBD young farmer of the year on their different jour-neys into dairying.
Michael Ward is a civil engineer by profession and now farmer. He owns one third of the ‘Ward and Burke Group’ that will construct €500 m worth of municipal infrastructure in Canada, USA, England and Ireland in 2024. They employ over 1,600 skilled people, hiring and training mainly young graduates and apprentices from farming backgrounds. He owns Kilbegnet House Farm in Creggs County Roscommon where he operates a 500 cow dairy herd with his share farming partner, Andrew Clarke. He grew up on a mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm which he inherited with his brother aged 16. After completing his leaving cert he farmed for two years before going onto study at UCG. After graduating he rented his farm and emigrated to England to work as a contractor. For the past 35 years he has lived between England and Ireland and in the past 4 years has resumed farming.
Christopher Cahill hails from Co. Cavan where he picked up his Grá for dairying while help-ing on his uncle’s 45 cow dairy farm. He completed the UCD dairy business degree, and subsequently a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture. He spent 2013 working in New Zealand where he encountered the concepts of share farming and contract grass measuring services. Following this Christopher worked with Lakeland Agri for 6 years as an animal nutritionist, and gained a huge wealth of experience in this role. In 2021, with help from Macra’s Land Mobility Service, Christopher formed a farming partnership with Tony McCormack, a dairy farmer from Co. Westmeath where Christopher provides the cows and labour, while Tony provides the land and infrastructure. Christopher is the director of Cavan Grassland Consultancy Ltd, a company he established to provide grassland measurement and management services.
Book dinner at €55 per person directly witht the Charleville Park Hotel 063 33700. Table of 10 seats only €500.
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