Attendees at the farm walk held on the farm of Thomas Carroll on Wednesday 6 May) couldn’t but be impressed by the quality cattle being turned out by the Laois farmer, albeit it with different breeds to the norm.
Thomas was one of Ashbourne Meats winners of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation Beef Quality Awards, picking up the suckler farmer finisher title.
Farming outside Ballybrophy, Co Laois, Thomas operates a full-time beef and tillage farm, with 45 acres of the 200-acre farm in barley (a mix of malting and feeding barley), with the remainder in grass.
Thomas Carroll, winner of the Ashbourne Meats suckler farmer finisher award as part of the ICBF Beef Quality Awards. \ Alf Harvey
Forty suckler cows are calved down in spring, with all mature cows being bred to the Parthenaise bull, while heifers are synchronised and AI’d before being mopped up by a Piedmontese bull. A mixture of homebred and purchased heifers are used for replacements.
Purchasing weanlings
In addition to bringing all his own cattle through to slaughter, Thomas also purchases 50 weanlings each year from marts such as Roscrea and Ballinakill, with his preference being to purchase Charolais, Limousin and Parthenaise cattle that have "potential rather than the finished article, with the aim of feeding them in to U grades".
These weanlings are vaccinated for pneumonia and dosed on arrival and allowed to settle back on to grass before housing for their first winter.
Thomas has built up a relationship with Ashbourne Meats, which has customers for under-20-month bull beef, which is the system Thomas operates.
Bulls are turned out for their second summer at grass before being brought back inside for an intensive finishing period using a mix of homegrown barley and barley balancer.
Bulls slaughtered in 2024 had an average CBV of €427, with heifers having an average of €411, with the quality of cattle on farm marrying with the indexes.
A full report on the farm walk will be in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal beef page.
Attendees at the farm walk held on the farm of Thomas Carroll on Wednesday 6 May) couldn’t but be impressed by the quality cattle being turned out by the Laois farmer, albeit it with different breeds to the norm.
Thomas was one of Ashbourne Meats winners of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation Beef Quality Awards, picking up the suckler farmer finisher title.
Farming outside Ballybrophy, Co Laois, Thomas operates a full-time beef and tillage farm, with 45 acres of the 200-acre farm in barley (a mix of malting and feeding barley), with the remainder in grass.
Thomas Carroll, winner of the Ashbourne Meats suckler farmer finisher award as part of the ICBF Beef Quality Awards. \ Alf Harvey
Forty suckler cows are calved down in spring, with all mature cows being bred to the Parthenaise bull, while heifers are synchronised and AI’d before being mopped up by a Piedmontese bull. A mixture of homebred and purchased heifers are used for replacements.
Purchasing weanlings
In addition to bringing all his own cattle through to slaughter, Thomas also purchases 50 weanlings each year from marts such as Roscrea and Ballinakill, with his preference being to purchase Charolais, Limousin and Parthenaise cattle that have "potential rather than the finished article, with the aim of feeding them in to U grades".
These weanlings are vaccinated for pneumonia and dosed on arrival and allowed to settle back on to grass before housing for their first winter.
Thomas has built up a relationship with Ashbourne Meats, which has customers for under-20-month bull beef, which is the system Thomas operates.
Bulls are turned out for their second summer at grass before being brought back inside for an intensive finishing period using a mix of homegrown barley and barley balancer.
Bulls slaughtered in 2024 had an average CBV of €427, with heifers having an average of €411, with the quality of cattle on farm marrying with the indexes.
A full report on the farm walk will be in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal beef page.
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