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Ballyross Farm

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Ballyross Farm

We are a small hill farm in the Wicklow mountains in Ireland. We keep Cheviot sheep and Dexter cows.
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24/09/2023

Love is …💜 our ram is besotted with Dollie the donkey!

19/08/2023

Double rainbow to compensate for the mess left behind by Storm Betty

12/07/2023

One of these is not like the other 🙃 also not ours! She was dipped with the rest of our flock and was reunited with her rightful owner

09/06/2023

Before and after browning comfort food for exam boys! Shepherds pie with dexter mince

03/05/2023

All you need is a ball, an audience and a quick snooze 😴

01/04/2023

Blackthorns in the mist - blocking the Sugarloaf in the background

30/03/2023

Nee burn lambs thriving and a well stuck Cheviot ewe 🤔🤔

24/03/2023

Spring showers bring …. RAINBOWS!!

18/03/2023

Nice to see the Dexter burger on the menu at Carton House. A few boxes of our grass fed beef left

17/03/2023

Signs of Spring

10/03/2023

Another few inches of snow this morning. Valley looks pretty in the snow

10/03/2023

It’s a snowy start here this morning!

21/12/2022

Happy winter solstice!!

Shortest day of the year today and it’s really easy to see. With the dramatic effect of the shortness of daylight. Watching year after year it’s quite obvious how the daylight affects nature: the growth of the grass, the leaves on the trees, the reproductive process of the sheep and the deer. All things revolve around our astrological rhythm.

09/12/2022

It’s a frosty one this morning!

Overnight temperatures dropped down to -2 degrees Celsius which is quite a bit below normal for us. I had to break the ice in the water troughs so that the animals can drink. Fishing all that ice out of the troughs is one of my least favourites jobs!

27/11/2022

Waiting for the sun…

Our farm is situated on the south side of the Glencree valley and the north slope of Mt Tonduff 642m (2,106ft). As the altitude of the sun wanes during winter we get to a point where we get no direct sunlight at all. You can see in the pictures where the sun is just below the top of the mountain.

I took the pictures today at noon.

It’s quite an unusual darkness. Sort of like during a total eclipse. It’s 24 days until the winter solstice and it will be another 24 days after that until we get direct sunlight again.

14/10/2022

Taking the sheep off the mountain.

They’ve been up there since June. We got lucky with the weather and got a nice day. This is key. Sometimes we’ve gone up and a cloud rolls in and you can’t hardly see more than about ten feet.

Somehow our flock got separated recently. We’re not sure how but we suspect they could’ve been chased by dogs. Luckily we think we’ve neatly gotten them all. This picture is of the second group we brought down.

Relieved to have them back in the farm!

11/10/2022

A few small successes in the greenhouse.

This was really our first year using this greenhouse. A few successes. You’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Hardly any of the super small tomatoes made it into the house. They were mostly eaten on the spot! The flavour was intense and they were really sweet, almost like berries!

Socks, our ‘barn’ cat, has taken to the warmth in the greenhouse. She’s become a greenhouse cat 😀.

07/10/2022

Moontastic!

All of nature’s spectacles seem to come in October.

05/10/2022

Wishing you a happy day!

You can’t make a rainbow without rain.

29/08/2022

Ballyross Farm 10kg Dexter beef box for €150.

Today we took another of our fine steers to the Farrelly Brothers butcher shop in Delgany. They’ll hang the carcass for three weeks and then cut a lovely selection on steaks, diced, minced and hamburgers of our dexter beef. We’re offering a 10kg beef box for €150.

If your interested in purchasing one of the boxes please message us, but do so quickly as unfortunately supplies are limited and we tend to sell it out quickly.

14/08/2022

Exhibiting at the Tullamore show

We took our lovely cow Ruby and her wee calf to the Tullamore agricultural show today. Big day! Lots of people! Loads of fun!

23/07/2022

Bringing in the straw

Out gathering up bales of straw for the coming winter. What a glorious day!

13/07/2022

Sometimes in life things don’t quite the way you planned….

09/07/2022

02/06/2022

Dog: Cat why do you always tease me?

Cat: Because I can.

10/05/2022

Which is better: braking the limbs with the loader on the tractor or climbing up the ladder with the chainsaw? In the end I just used the tractor forks. I’m not keen on climbing up a ladder and trying to use a two handed chainsaw whilst perched on a rung.

25/04/2022

To whoever was walking their dog in Crone woods or along the Powerscourt Waterfall road Saturday 23 November at approximately 7pm: this is what your dog did to my poor ewe.

Everybody thinks “oh, my lovely dog wouldn’t do that.” And then they let that dog off the lead and this is what happens. We can tell from the bite marks this wasn’t a big dog. If it had been a big dog the ewe would be dead. As it is, the wounds are easily infected by the dog saliva. We’ve given her antibiotics but we don’t know if she’ll live.

If your going to bring your dog out to the Wicklow or Dublin mountains PLEASE keep your dog on a lead at all times.

11/04/2022

Hanging out in the hay bell, chewin the cud!

03/04/2022

Sometimes I just like to take it slow. I can rush down in the tractor taking out about her bale of hay. I put it in 5th and go 10-15km/h be done with it and fast back to the next job. But sometimes I like to just leave it in 1st and take in a bit of it all, no rush…

26/12/2021

Happy St. Stephen’s Day from us at Ballyross Farm!

Address

Ballyross, Enniskerry
Wicklow
A98D927

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Videos

Getting bigger and in to trouble! #sheepdogs #workingdog

Donkeys are amazing animals! This is ‘Dolly’ our resident donkey and friend. They can move those big ears the have back and forth to pick up all that the hear. Quite amazing! #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #hillfarming #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #donkey

Happy Christmas! Dolly our donkey getting excited for a new bale of hay. All hashtags #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #springlamb #lamb #tbonesteak #steak #beef #sirloinsteak #meatlover #dextercattle #irishbeef #grassfedbeef

Making hay! This is only the second year we’ve made hay here. We took the farm over in 2013 from the estate of Leo Murphy (RIP). He was well in his 80’s when he passed. By the time we got the ground back into shape most of neighbours estimate it’d been at least 30 years since anyone had made hay here. For us it’s small triumph bring the fields back up hay making capability. #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #springlamb #lamb #tbonesteak #steak #beef #sirloinsteak #meatlover #dextercattle #irishbeef #grassfedbeef

Introducing Vasco, our ram, to the ladies! #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #springlamb #lamb #meatlover #biodiversity #npwsireland #powerscourt #sustainability

Sheep shearing! It’s that time of year again. Time to shed that old wool coat! Contrary to what some people think, this doesn’t hurt them. In fact, it’s necessary. If you don’t shear them the wool just keeps growing, and growing. If left it can grow so see that if the sheep falls over on its back it would be unable to roll over and get back up. Shearing them also helps against fly strike in the summer time. Unfortunately as we’ve all switched to wearing synthetic materials like rayon, which is made from fossil fuels, the demand for wool has plummeted. We used to be able to sell outlet wool for €1 / kg. This used to cover the cost of shearing then. Now we can’t even give it away. ☹️ #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #springlamb #lamb #barbecue

Sheep TV!!

It’s Wednesday. That makes it ‘hump day’ for most of us but for these little lambs it’s definitely ‘jump day’! Make sure you get your jump in today!! #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #springlamb #lamb #barbecue

Go little lambs go! These two are four days old now but already they’re getting the strength in their legs and want to run. Then comes mom... All the lambs love to run and jump. It never gets old watching! #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #springlamb #lamb #barbecue

Sheepdog pups! It’s not just the ewes giving birth today but also our lead sheepdog, Psyche. We matched her up with a champion sheepdog a few months ago. Psyche is a small sheepdog. She’s only about 15kg / 33lbs (if even). Yet that little dog gave birth first to four and then another three little pups! #sheepdog #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #springlamb #lamb #barbecue

Lambs in the sun! Really nice mild weather today. We had several sets of twins yesterday. We turned a few of the out for a bit into the sunshine to have a mooch around while we put out more bedding in their pens. #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #wicklowmountains #wicklow #springlamb #lamb #barbecue

Everybody loves a scratch! . #sheep #wicklowmountains #natureireland #ireland #wicklow #enniskerry #farmlife #irishfood #irlanda #bestmeat #meatlover #farmtoforkireland #farmtofork #fieldtofork #hillfarming #barbecue #localfood #knowyourfarmer #springlamb #lamb #tbonesteak #steak #beef #sirloinsteak #meatlover #dextercattle #irishbeef #grassfedbeef