Lack of land no barrier to success
Jim McCarthy, from Castledermot, Co Kildare, owns just three acres of land but has become one of the largest tillage farmers in the country.
Since 1992, he has built his tillage operation to 2,000 acres, all rented from 19 different farmers.
He also bales 15,000 tonnes of straw for the mushroom industry as well as running a grain drying and fertiliser spreading business.
Born in Cork city, he attended the Teagasc College in Clonakilty and went on to become a qualified farm manager. He is now one of the country’s biggest employers of Teagasc trainees.
Speaking at a Teagasc education conference in Dublin Castle yesterday, he criticised constant "weeping and wailing" about how awful things are in farming.
He claimed farming organisations have done more than anyone else to discourage young people from going into the sector.
"They lack the honesty to tell farmers the agriculture of the future will be a lot different from the past. To survive in the future global market, we must be the lowest cost producers.
"This will not be achieved on a 35,000 gallons milk quota, 40 suckler cows or 150 acres of tillage. Scale must be dramatically increased," insisted Mr McCarthy.
