Over 400 farmers attended this year’s Irish Grassland Association beef farm walk on Tim Meagher’s farm, just outside Roscrea in Co Tipperary, one of the largest attendances in recent years.

Meagher is a full-time beef and tillage farmer, farming 112ha of land, which includes 87ha of grassland and 25ha of tillage. Farmers at the walk commented that the quality of cattle on the farm were some of the best they have ever seen. His system is a massive vote of confidence in the suckler cow in the west of Ireland producing top-quality weanlings.

Heifers and bullocks are bought in September and October each year, weighing in the 500-520kg bracket in marts all across the west of Ireland like Balla, Roscommon and Elphin. These are then finished the following year from July to October.

Last year’s bullocks averaged 481kg, grading a U=3=. The heifers cames in at a carcase weight of 434kg, grading U=3=. This year’s bullocks are currently averaging 705kg and gaining 1.34kg/day since turnout in March.

“I buy cattle that are bred to be fed. Continental cattle have huge potential for high weight gains, carcase weights, grading and killouts. There’s nothing to match them out there in terms of performance,” Meagher told the crowd.

Speaking at the event, Paul Nolan of Dawn Meats was cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year in relation to beef price.

“We’ve seen some figures from the UK this week showing consumption is down and that’s likely on the back of prices going up in supermarkets. That said, on a global basis beef supplies are down and that should help the price going forward,” he said.