Matthew’s farm is situated on a steep hillside in Castlegregory, County Kerry, with wonderful views across Tralee Bay. The farm includes 30 acres of owned land devoted to sheep farming with cheviots, and he also has access to commonage. Of the 4.9 million hectares of agricultural land in Ireland, 427,800 hectares of this is commonage – almost 9% of the total farming land. Commonage is mostly unfenced uplands, jointly owned by a group of farmers. Over 11,000 farms have a shareholding in one or more of the approximately 4,500 remaining commonages. 

Matt’s wife, Maura, inherited the farm from her uncles while they were living in New Zealand. They decided to return to Ireland to farm the land. As neither had formal farming backgrounds, they were taking on an uphill challenge and have embarked upon a steep learning curve.

Matt and Maura decided to follow a sustainable approach to farming which included an emphasis on building biodiversity and habitat. Mob grazing the sheep, moving them daily using a Gallagher electric fence, allows him a 45 day gazing rotation. This means that a grazed area has a full 45 days to regenerate. Although this is a highly labour intensive system, the rewards are in evident in the amount of grass available and the quality and diversity of the grazing.

Like many other farmers on the project, Matt & Maura are busy building a home and maintaining the infrastructure on the farm, including repairing its many stone walls. You can view a gallery of photos from Matthew’s farm here.