Watch: The dairy farmer who’s moving into forestry
Karl Matuschka has been farming for over 40 years, but he recently traded in dairy farming for a “slower pace of life”, which for him means focussing on tillage, beef, and mostly forestry.
Farming has been in the Matuschka family for generations. Karl's father was a farmer in Germany before the family moved to Ireland.
On his farm in Moone, Co. Kildare, Matuschka talked to Agriland about why he left dairy farming.
He said: “I suppose the main reason is I hit 66 in January and I wanted a slower pace of life.
“Dairy farming is 24/7. And the second reason was we had a family chat and the family does not want to be involved with dairy farming.
“So once that was clear, it was time to move on. And I was quite happy to move on into this pace of life and look after the farm in a more environmentally friendly way.”
This meant moving into tillage, for which he leased out 70ac; alongside 100ac of beef, which Matuschka personally looks after; and forestry, over 60ac, which he hopes to expand to 90ac.
He described forestry as something “my son and myself will fiddle away with for the next 30, 40 years”.
While forestry grants have been available for decades, they became more generous in recent years, according to Matuschka.
“Around 2023, Pippa Hackett organised a new package, which is a new forestry strategy and they went up by between 40 and 60%,” he said.
He added that this package “got a lot of people thinking, is it worth going into it?”
“It's worth it for me,” he said.
Retirement plan
“Trees as a retirement plan has always been pushed that they're a very good pension,” said Matuschka.
“I think, for me, it works. Possibly it wouldn't work for everybody, but for me there will be a nice income coming there because we're into a rotation.
“My father planted and my uncle planted, so the rotation is up and running.
"I benefit from their planting and now my son will benefit from my planting and on it goes.
“So there will always be money coming from it. It wouldn't be a total pension, but it's a help in an integrated farm system.”
Advice
While forestry is very long-term, Matuschka advised paying ongoing attention to the trees.
He said: “I think it's important with forestry that you don't just shut the gate on it once it's planted.
“I tended to do that because of the dairying. The dairying always took priority and some of the plantations here suffered from that.
“But it's a good idea to actually walk it at weekends, see what the issues are, see what pests are nibbling away at them. I learned a lot over the years.”
Matuschka said that it’s important to “go out and work with the trees and be very much an active part of it”.
“It might be a grass-based, efficient farm, but with forestry it’s just as important to be out there.”
