Irish Farmers Journal podcasts

This week’s Youngstock podcast features none other than Tullamore farm manager Shaun Diver, who chats to Martin Merrick about his life before Tullamore and what has changed on the farms since 2018.

Compared to dairy farms, there are only a handful of beef or sheep farms throughout Ireland that have a full-time farm manager who is responsible for the day to day running of a mixed enterprise. Cue Shaun Diver, an Inishowen native who took on the responsibility of running the Tullamore Farm at just 22 years of age in the middle of spring 2018, and who has been at the helm of the ship since.

I talk to Shaun on what lead him to Tullamore; his home farm, his education after school and his stint of four years working on a large-scale beef, sheep and tillage farm in Tipperary that equipped him with the skills and autonomy to step in to Tullamore Farm and turn it in to the efficient farming system it is today. We also talk about changes to the farming system, with the addition of Easycare ewes to the sheep flock and the switch to 100% with more sexed semen used due to heat detection collars in the suckler herd. Shaun’s two loyal assistants, farm dogs Niko and Bella, also feature, without whom the running of the farm would not be possible, and we also chat about what is to come up in the Tullamore Farm’s new video series, which will feature a monthly video on topical matters and real-life farming issues.