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Installing a wind turbine has helped the Stewart family’s Ballinaskeagh herd cope with herd expansion and provided an additional source of income.
Photography by Richard Hodgson
ith the Ballinaskeagh herd finding itself under TB restrictions on a number of occasions Jim and Wilma Stewart and sons James, Andrew and Stephen, have struggled to maximise income, particularly having previously sold fresh heifers on a regular basis.
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Having been under TB restrictions for more than five years the family have seen herd numbers expand, with only two or three cows being taken at a time, with the herd remaining restricted, explains Jim.
“We did lose a lot of cows early on, more than 100 in the first two years which hampered the development of some cow families when some exciting young cows were lost. Since then it has always just been a few here and there, so we’ve been forced into keeping more heifers than we might have otherwise. We have been able to sell some as calved heifers in the past.”
This herd expansion has resulted in a need for extra cow accommodation, but the best site for a new cow building was
Ballinaskeagh is a family run herd with James, Wilma, Jim and Andrew Stewart working on the farm full time, while Stephen is studying business at university.
not ideally suited to working with the existing parlour. “This is where our earlier decision to install a wind turbine to provide a secondary income has really paid dividends as it has meant we were able to install two robot milkers in the new shed and run them with home produced electricity.” Having looked in to wind power as an additional source of income the Stewarts initially felt it would be out of their financial reach to invest in the project of installing a wind turbine. However, due to
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