A preview of the Irish Grassland Association National Beef Walk

With the upcoming Irish Grassland Association (IGA) National Beef walk taking place on Tuesday, June 11, Martin Shaughnessy, sucker and sheep farmer from Co. Mayo, and Paddy Casey, the IGA’s Beef chairperson, are on this week’s Beef Edge to discuss Martin’s system and the upcoming open day.

Martin runs a suckler-to-weaning system, while also lambing approximately 150 ewes – a typical suckler and sheep operation in the west of Ireland. Martin now runs a herd of sixteen three-quarter-bred Limousin dams mated to Belgian Blue sires each year. Maiden heifers are crossed back to Limousin genetics, while sexed semen was also introduced in 2023.  The breeding season has gone very well with all cows inseminated. The suckler system is quite simple.  The cattle rotationally graze a 10-12 ac block on the home farm, which is laid out in paddocks under a leader-follower system.

The sheep enterprise consists of Suffolk and Texel cross ewes – split lambing at the start of February and then again around St. Patrick’s day each year. The ewes are synchronised to leave the management during lambing easier. 

Martin is also involved in the Teagasc Agricultural Catchments Programme with the farm located in the Cregduff catchment, east of Ballinrobe town, Co. Mayo (Eircode F12 PR23).

The farm walk is a free event and is very kindly sponsored by FBD Insurance. Flame grilled burgers will be available at 6pm sharp for those who wish to arrive early and the event will get underway at 6:30pm, finishing at 8:30pm.

Listen in below:

Further details of the walk are available on the Irish Grassland Association's website.

For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com, visit the show page.