Aisling Meehan comes from a dairy farm and has a hands-on experience of rural agricultural matters. As well as operating a niche agricultural law and tax practice from offices located on the farm, Aisling farms her own land located in the Burren. Together with her husband Brian, she has recently purchased another farm locally which they farm through a registered farm partnership.  They are exploring the possibility of commencing a dairy unit on this farm.

Rathlahine Farm is an award winning family farm owned by the Meehan family.  The Meehan family’s philosophy has from the outset been based on three main objectives which are:

• Quality of Life,
• Profit – Family Farm Income,
• Farm as a base for Family in the Future.

Aisling’s parents, Liam and Maureen Meehan started out in the late 1970’s with 8 cows and 62 acres of owned land.  They wanted to build the herd and so postponed the building of the family home for eight years during which time they reared three of their children in a mobile home located on the home farm.  As their children wished to pursue a career in farming, they needed to expand in order to provide a viable farm enterprise for each family member in the future.  Working as a family team, they built the farm up from 48 dairy cows on 62 acres of own land in 1989 to over 350 dairy cows on 500 acres of owned land today.  They operate a low cost grass based dairy system for which they have gained national recognition as follows:-

1988       National Creamery Milk Supplier of the Year Award

1989       National Environmental Award

1990       National Family Farm of the Year Award

To accommodate visitor interest in the farm, the Meehan family established a purpose built conference centre located on the home farm.  This conference centre has the capacity to seat 100 people and visitors are given an audio visual presentation detailing how the farm grew in scale over the years and an overview of the future plans for the family farm.  While dairy farming continues to be the central focus of the Meehan family, they have also developed on-farm enterprises such as a natural lake on the farm which is stocked with rainbow and brown trout and has four rowing boats available for hire.