Animals

The small tenant farmers kept cattle but more for dairy than beef. Milk and butter were made for domestic use with surplus produce being sold at market. Cattle farming (beef and dairy) is still popular on the shores of Lough Neagh today, where the majority of the farms have been given over to pasture. Grass is the most important crop on these farms providing much needed silage during the winter months.

Pigs and hens were also kept on small holding, as pork and eggs could be sold at market. Horses were bought at two years old, worked on the farm for two years and then sold on. The trade in horses was particularly vibrant around Lough Neagh in the 1830’s as the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Drummaul parish (northeast corner) show and from here horses were brought to markets as far away as Mullingar, Co. Westmeath and Ballinsloe, Co. Galway.