I farm: “Sheep and beef with my dad Raymond and my brothers Eamonn and Ray on 60ac, a mixture of owned and rented land. We are into horses as well.”
Sheep: “We have a commercial flock of sheep which are a mixture of Charollais, Texel and Suffolk. We also have a flock of pedigree Charollais. We only got into these in the last three or four years but we’ve gotten on really well with them.”
Katie Shanahan and her flock of pedigree Turret Charollais sheep on her farm in Leap. \ Andy Gibson.
Beef: “We mainly buy calves or weanlings and finish them off. We usually always bought continental calves but last year we bought a few dairy-beef calves. We had to raise the calves on milk for the first few weeks which was something new for us.”
Horses: “We are big into cross-country and drag hunting. We have two beautiful Irish Sport Horses. They’re a thoroughbred and Irish Draught cross. I’m a member of the west Cork riding club and I go there every week.”
At the minute: “We have been lambing since New Year’s Day with the pedigrees. You want to have these lambing early to get a good chance in the show ring.”
We won: “Reserve champion ram lamb last year at the Tullow premier sale so that was a massive success for us. He went on to make €3,700 for us then. It makes all the work worth it in the end.”
Katie Shanahan and sheepdog Rocky tend to her Turret Charollais pedigree flock on the family farm in Leap. \ Andy Gibson
Future plans: “We hope to increase the pedigree flock a lot and bring in new bloodlines from France or England. Something that really interests me is embryo transfer and putting pedigree Charollais embryos into Mule ewes who would be really good mothers. We would have more progeny off good pedigree ewes in less time by flushing the ewes.”
I farm: “Sheep and beef with my dad Raymond and my brothers Eamonn and Ray on 60ac, a mixture of owned and rented land. We are into horses as well.”
Sheep: “We have a commercial flock of sheep which are a mixture of Charollais, Texel and Suffolk. We also have a flock of pedigree Charollais. We only got into these in the last three or four years but we’ve gotten on really well with them.”
Katie Shanahan and her flock of pedigree Turret Charollais sheep on her farm in Leap. \ Andy Gibson.
Beef: “We mainly buy calves or weanlings and finish them off. We usually always bought continental calves but last year we bought a few dairy-beef calves. We had to raise the calves on milk for the first few weeks which was something new for us.”
Horses: “We are big into cross-country and drag hunting. We have two beautiful Irish Sport Horses. They’re a thoroughbred and Irish Draught cross. I’m a member of the west Cork riding club and I go there every week.”
At the minute: “We have been lambing since New Year’s Day with the pedigrees. You want to have these lambing early to get a good chance in the show ring.”
We won: “Reserve champion ram lamb last year at the Tullow premier sale so that was a massive success for us. He went on to make €3,700 for us then. It makes all the work worth it in the end.”
Katie Shanahan and sheepdog Rocky tend to her Turret Charollais pedigree flock on the family farm in Leap. \ Andy Gibson
Future plans: “We hope to increase the pedigree flock a lot and bring in new bloodlines from France or England. Something that really interests me is embryo transfer and putting pedigree Charollais embryos into Mule ewes who would be really good mothers. We would have more progeny off good pedigree ewes in less time by flushing the ewes.”
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: