John Heslin: ‘We were lucky we had the farm to keep us busy’

John Heslin has never been shy about speaking about his passion for farming, but the events of the last year and a bit has given him a renewed appreciation for the agricultural life.

Best known for his exploits on the football field for Westmeath and St Loman’s Mullingar, John is a part time beef farmer. A busy man, he is also a market access and marketing manager for MSD Animal Health Intelligence Ireland, a firm that provides a range of devices for animal identification, monitoring, and traceability.

He says that being able to get out on the family farm on the outskirts of Mullingar has provided him with an invaluable outlet throughout the pandemic.

“We have been very lucky that we have had the farm to keep us occupied. Many people have been lonely, while others have suffered from Covid. It has been a tough time. We had to keep show on road, dealing with new life and looking after the animals. It certainly kept us focused and helped us try not to worry too much about the pandemic and what was going on.

“As farming is a frontline duty, I got to see him, albeit we were abiding by the restrictions. We were outside but got to stay in contact, because other than that it would have been quite lonely.

“We just count ourselves lucky. Although when you are walking outdoors with the rain gear on and the rain is beating against your face, you may not feel that lucky, but on the grand scheme of things we were.”

Through his work with MSD, John is dealing with cutting edge farming technology on a daily basis. On the family farm the introduction of agri-tech devices in recent years have made a big difference.

“For the last three to four years we have had a calving camera. While I live off-farm and my father lives on-farm, we both work. A calving camera allow us to keep an eye on the animals while they express their natural behaviours without us having to intervene. For example, most of our cows basically calved on their own, unassisted, this year. You keep an eye on them on the camera and if they need an intervention then we go in and give a hand.”

The Heslins recently added a new piece of tech to the farm that will prove handy during the current breeding season and the rest of the year.

“Our cows now also have an ear tag that monitors the animals’ behaviour every minute of the day. It provides alerts to my phone if the animal is sick, if the animal is in heat or it is in distress.

“It is really a labour-saving tool for us.

“People would be familiar with Allflex’s identification tags, the yellow tags, but they also have monitoring technology, heat and health monitoring.

“To give you examples, on Saturday morning I received an alert on my phone to say that a particular heifer had a health issue. Her rumination, her grazing and her activity all dropped off, and it gave me a notification to say there was something wrong. We brought her in to the shoot, and she had a temperature of 40, which was quite high. She needed some treatment and intervention. She has since recovered. I can check her rumination and grazing without having to disturb her.

“I also have five cows in heat and are ready for insemination. Thanks to the monitor, I am saving time as I don’t have to be out standing there watching them for heat signs.

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“The system picks it up and gives me an hourly countdown – there is a 26-hour window to inseminate them. It allows us to plan ahead for breeding.”

Through his role with MSD, John spends a lot of his time working with farmers who are introducing monitoring systems for their herds. Increasing numbers of Irish farmers are becoming aware of the benefits of using technology to improve how they work, he says.

“The year 2021 has been remarkably busy from a sales perspective and in particular for dairy farmers, but we have had huge interest in the system from beef farmers as well. In terms of monitoring technology, in Ireland I would say that between five and seven per cent of cows have monitoring technology. In the UK, it is maybe 40 per cent, mainland Europe around 60 per cent and Israel around 90 per cent. It is a growing area here in Ireland. Technology is improving many aspects of our lives and it is interesting to see how it will work in the agriculture sector.”

Rather than replace the knowledge and practices passed down through the generations, John says that ag-tech products complement them. “Technology will never replace the human/animal interaction from a farming perspective, but it will certainly complement the animal management, in terms of a labour perspective, not intervening when you don’t have to and ensuring that we are providing optimal conditions for our animals to maximise their welfare.

“Labour is the big one, though. We have seen on dairy farms, in particular, that labour can be sometimes hard to source. Now, is a busy time of the year. Breeding has been going on for the last couple of weeks on farms and some are probably still finishing calving. People are trying to get fertiliser spread on grass, trying to get silage and obviously in the current weather trying to get the grass to grow, there is a lot going on.

“The likes of the monitoring technology is helping look after the most important element of the farm – the animal. Outside of the farmer, of course. Without the animal, there would be no farm on a livestock farm, so it is important that we look after the animals.

“The technology can show how good your farm is. If your farm has an excellent health rating, monitoring technology can show that as well.”

Before the advances in sports science of the last two decades, received wisdom suggested that GAA players from agricultural backgrounds had an advantage over their peers due to their “farmer’s strength”.

John is pretty sure that isn’t the case any more, but there are other less tangible ways that being a farmer can help in other fields of life.

“One thing that is often said to me from elder statesmen, who were involved in the agricultural industry and played football, is that it helps with the mental side of the game, it might help by giving you a bit of mental toughness.

“You experience things in farming life, sometimes things don’t go your way and you can experience that from a young age.”

With the farm entering one of its busiest periods of the year, the GAA season kicking off and his busy day job, one thing John won’t have much of is free time, but that is just the way he likes it.

“Now we are back training [intercounty training resumed last month] that will consume a lot of time. Intercounty football takes a huge commitment.

“I am not an 18-year-old any more. There are a lot of young lads on the team flying around.

“It’s great, but I can see what the older guys were talking about when I came on the scene when they spoke about a life outside football.

“Once upon a time I thought that life was football and football was life. That’s not the case. Football for me is about getting down, enjoying the fun with the lads and getting away from the hectic day to day life.

“It can be difficult, but it is enjoyable too. There is no doubt about it. I am lucky that I farm in partnership with my father. He is active, very keen. He drives a lot on the farm. We work together. We get a lot of the big jobs done together, the vaccinations etc. That is normally done on a Saturday or a late evening.

“Of course, my day to day is in agriculture as well so farming is never too far away from my thoughts. They complement each other that’s for sure.

“It can be difficult to get the timing right but the farming can give you a break from the day-to-day job.”