Taking things to the next level in Tipperary

A thousand years is a long time to be farming. Some farmers I know think 10 years is too long but that’s when it’s raining and cattle prices are bad. That’s how long the Meagher family name has been associated with their farm just outside Roscrea in Co Tipperary.

The weight of expectation or duty to carry things on doesn’t sit heavy on the current inhabitant Tim Meagher’s shoulders.

A lot of changes have taken place on the farm since the first Meaghers landed in Roscrea around 1000AD and a lot of changes have taken place on the farm since Tim Meagher took over the reins in the 1980s.

The farm was once home to a suckler herd, a ewe flock, potatoes and a mix of tillage enterprises, a typical traditional mixed farm you might say.

The suckler herd and ewe flock grew to 80 sucklers and 180 ewes but over time more and more weanlings were purchased. In 2015 the autumn calving suckler herd was sold with Tim moving to a store to beef enterprise.

“I’m very proud to continue that legacy. Growing grass is one of our great strengths in this country and I hate to see and being taken out of production for forestry when we could be growing food on it,” Tim said in his opening comments to the 400 plus crowd present on the night.

Tim, his wife Shauna and their four children are farming 277 acres of pretty good Tipperary land.

On the night Tim described the farm as being heavy clay and you could see how it could get wet but it’s still a fine grazing farm capable of growing a high tonnage of grass or tillage crops. The farm is located in pretty much one block, the main road and a local road splitting the farm.

In recent times the main road has altered management, with increased traffic moving stock across the road becoming more and more difficult.

Like all successful systems Tim’s system is a very simple one. He heads west in September and October every year and buys in store bullocks and store heifers, the best he can buy in the heart of suckler country, Ballymote, Roscommon and Elphin.

Looking out across field after field of orange and white bullocks, one better than the other last Tuesday evening, it’s obvious Tim has an eye for stock.

“I buy stock that are bred to be fed and I try to buy cattle with potential, capable of delivering big weight gains, heavy carcases coupled with high grades and fat covers.”

Interestingly, even though the higher Commercial Beef Value (CBV) index cattle are coming out as the heaviest on Tim’s farm CBV doesn’t really come into it when he is buying cattle in the mart.

“You’ve got a few seconds to check the weight, check the age, check their feet, check you’re happy with them and then you’re looking at the auctioneer trying to buy them.

“It’s very hard to take in CBV as well in that short period you have,” he says.

Tim’s system is working and delivered a gross margin in 2024 of €1,650/ha on a stocking rate of 2.27 LU/ha. Performance from the predominantly grass based system is top notch with this year’s oldest group of bullocks weighing in at 705kg having done 1.34kg of liveweight gain since turnout in March. Average carcase weight for bullocks in 2024 was 481kg grading a U=3+ with heifers coming in at 434kg grading a U=3=. He’s really punching above his weight in terms of farm output putting out 690kg of liveweight/ha and 1,300kg of carcase weight/ha. He puts a lot of this output down to the genetics of the cattle he is buying.

Tim concentrates on getting quality grass into his animals and 89% of all the feed consumed on the farm is coming from grass or gras silage with the remainder predominantly home-produced cereals.

“I allocate enough grass to make sure I have the bullocks stretched out.

“I have started to use tetraploids in the last three years and I’m really happy with them. The cattle really like the tetraploid paddocks”.

Tim is on the upper end when it comes to age at slaughter and carcase weight. He has the cattle to do it and he has a factory to take them, but farmers reading an average carcase weight of 481kg could be forgiven for getting frustrated when Dawn Meats say they don’t have an issue processing them.

On the issue of carcase weights, Paul Nolan was measured in his response. “Back 40 years ago everybody wanted what Tim was producing. Intervention was there and the bigger carcase you had, the more money you got but as supermarkets grew, we found that people were watching the price of a steak so that tends to influence their purchasing choice so when we transfer that into the markets we need something lighter than what Tim is producing.

“On the other hand there are some niche markets on the continent that require heavy beef.

“They are small, they are demanding and the big thing they want is consistency. The striploin for the animals weighing 400-440kg are too big for the supermarkets and they end up going in as roast beef to the restaurant trade at a reduced price when compared to other steaks.

“In an ideal world we’re looking for a 300-360kg carcase, grading an O+ to an R+ and a 3 on fat. With more cattle coming from the dairy herd we are seeing more carcases that suit the pockets of consumers.”

On the factory/farmer relationship Tim had an interesting view.

“It’s my view that we are all in this together. I’m expected to pay well for the bullocks that I buy. That rewards the suckler farmer and I expect to get rewarded for those cattle when I go to the factory and I’m sure Paul Nolan expects to get rewarded for that meat when he sells it to the retailer and it’s a similar relationship between the retailer and consumer. It’s the law of the jungle”.

Looking ahead to autumn beef prices and current store prices Tim said “A rising tide lifts every ship and it’s great for suckler farmers. The prices I’m hearing for store cattle are very worrying at the moment. I don’t know how we’re going to do it.

“We’ll have to wait and see in September how things are going. If the price of stores is relative to the price of beef I have some hope, but with what’s going on with the weanlings at the moment, I could be in serious bother.”

Tim has put a huge effort into establishing clover swards on his farm. Soil fertility on the farm is good with the average Ph for the farm coming in at 6.5 with the majority of the farm index 2 and 3 for P and K. Fertiliser use isn’t high with 10 tonne of 0:7:30, 12 tonne of protected urea and 4.5 tonne of protected urea+sulphur.

Clover is contributing a lot to nitrogen with an estimated additional 200 units/acre of nitrogen coming from clover on the farm. He has established clover swards both ways, reseeding and oversowing with a percentage of the farm oversowed every year. The clover is simply mixed in with fertiliser and over- sowed on paddocks. Tim hasn’t had any issues with bloat with most paddocks now having some clover incorporated. He doesn’t make animals graze very tight so animals are never very hungry moving into a new paddock. “Cleaning out paddocks in the autumn and leaving very little grass over winter is important for persistency,” he said.

In short: