Our Animals

While the Ballymaloe Cookery School Organic Farm is primarily horticultural, we keep a small number of animals that play an essential role in daily life here. Very simply, we could not do what we do without them.

Visitors to the school and farm will see that our animals enjoy the very best care and living conditions. Their health and happiness directly affects our health and happiness. To quote Darina: "the health of the soil, the health of the plant, the health of the animal and the health of the human are all one and indivisible." If our animals are respected and well treated, it is conveyed into the food we eventually consume.

Cows

On the farm there are both dairy cows and suckler cows that graze on organic pastures with lots of clover. The dairy breeds are Jersey and  Friesian/Jersey cross and the suckler breeds are Kerry (a traditional Irish breed), Dexter and 3 Aberdeen Angus. More information

Pigs

We have four traditional breeds of pigs, Gloucester Old Spot, Saddle-back, Tamworth and Berkshire, and lots of piglets. More information

Hens

We have about 350 hens! The 4 main varieties are Leg-Horn, Sussex , Black and Barred which the students feed daily with scraps from the morning’s cooking. More information

Learn More About our organic farm:

Our Organic Farm

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cooking school on demand

Sustainability

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fireside chats

Outdoor Vegetable Patch

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live cookery demonstrations

The Glasshouses

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Our Compost Cycle

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cooking school on demand

Our Animals

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fireside chats

The Dairy

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live cookery demonstrations

The Farm Walk

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