newford farm, athenry

Dawn Meats and Teagasc, supported by McDonald's and The Irish Farmers Journal have established a standalone suckler herd at Athenry, Co Galway to demonstrate best practice in sustainable suckler beef production.

The herd, which is known as the Newford Herd, is run on a fully commercial basis and demonstrates the potential of a moderately large suckler beef farm to generate a viable family farm income when operated to the highest level of technical efficiency and best practice.

The farm acts as a shop window for the technologies that drive profitability in a suckler herd and operates in a completely transparent manner, with all measurements and data available to visiting groups, other interested parties and the farming public.

Iarlaith is the farm manager and carries out the daily tasks on the farm such as tending to stock, grass measuring and spreading fertilizer. He comes from a family farm with a strong suckling and beef finishing tradition and has added further experience by recently managing a 600 calf to beef unit in Roscommon.