Pat Carthy’s Sligo farm has moved into summer grazing with grass growing more strongly after a difficult spring, according to Agriland. The recent spell of warm weather has lifted sward growth, while first-cut bale silage was secured earlier this week in good conditions. Although the crop was lighter than hoped, Carthy’s focus is on quality rather than bulk, with the aim of producing silage with strong dry matter digestibility.

The farm’s suckler herd has now calved and is out at grass, with breeding to be handled by a Charolais stock bull running with the cows through the summer. Carthy said the calving season had gone well overall, despite some issues with scour in calves. Last year’s weanlings, which averaged 435kg at turnout, have been grazing since late April.

The 2025-born suckler-bred bull calves were castrated last autumn and will be finished as steers, a decision driven by shed space. Meanwhile, the dairy-beef yearlings are performing strongly and are ahead of target weights. They averaged 415kg at turnout on 11 April after a winter diet of silage and concentrates, with the concentrate element removed in January before they went back to grass.

This year’s dairy-beef calves have also begun arriving on the farm. They came from a dairy producer in County Cavan and were matched through ABP’s Advantage Beef Programme farm liaison team, which has helped Carthy source calves from the same supplier for several years. The latest batch is a mix of Angus and Friesian, and Carthy continues to feed back sire performance to help shape next year’s calf profile before breeding begins.

Beyond livestock, Carthy has also planted 1,800 whitethorn plants to form a new hedgerow on part of the holding. The hedge is intended to improve shelter and biodiversity, and it will be double-fenced until established and stockproof. He has also joined the CliBeef project, an EU-funded initiative aimed at helping beef farmers in Northern Ireland and the border counties cut greenhouse gas emissions through practical on-farm measures. ABP says its Advantage Beef Programme is designed to support dairy, beef and suckler farms with genetics, efficiency gains, pricing certainty and wider advisory help.

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