Aonghusa Fahy March/April Update 2026

Media

Aonghusa participated in a recent Future Beef webinar outlining his suckler beef enterprise and the technologies he uses to allow him to use 100% AI on the farm. He is joined by Daire Markham, Veterinary Practitioner and Edwin Carroll, Teagasc Grange. You can watch it back here:

Breeding

Only 4 cows were left to calve on Aonghusa’s farm by 27^th March. The calving season went okay, with no major issues at calving and 23 live calves on the ground. However a further two calves were dead at birth and while the blood results did not show anything, Aonghusa is wondering if they smothered in the bag after being born. One cow is now rearing a dairy beef calf so Aonghusa will breed from her again.

Figure 1: Some of the suckler calves at grass

The breeding season started on Monday 20^th April. Aonghusa has 36 to 38 females to breed this year, including 9 maiden heifers which he plans to synchronise for AI. Culls are yet to be finalised and will likely be the late calvers and older cows that have low udders. The suckler cows are currently at:

• €112 on the replacement index
• 17kg for carcass weight
• 4kg for daughter milk
• -0.18 days on daughter calving interval
• 05 for docility

The bulls Aonghusa has selected include:

• Maternal:SI4950, SI6226, LM9577, CH5980
• Terminal: LM4184, CH5169
• Heifers:LM6172, LM8929, AA7800, ZLL

All bulls were chosen based on calving difficulty of less than 8% for cows and less than 7% for heifers. The maternal bulls were selected based on their daughter milk (4 to 12.1kg), daughter calving interval (+1.33 to -4.53 days) and carcass weight (24.3 to 43.7k g) and have been matched to cows that need improvements in those traits. The aim is to produce a balanced animal for replacement, that will also have desirable traits for finishing on the farm if it’s a male. The terminal bulls were selected on carcass weight (21.8 to 33.3 kg), carcass conformation (2.39) and age at finish (+1.8 8days to -3.46 days).

Aonghusa’s priority for the heifers is to produce a live calf at birth and he is using Angus bulls on the smaller ones that also have Angus breeding in them. The Limousin bulls being used are balanced bulls so he may have potential replacements from them also.

Figure 2: Second calvers will receive an easier calving bull than third calvers

With his new Sensehub system Aonghusa decided to sell one of the dairy beef vasectomised bulls for €1500 as he won’t need him.

Aonghusa is also vaccinating the herd against bluetongue. It’s a viral disease affecting cattle and sheep, but it does not affect humans and poses no food safety risk.

It can be transferred 3 different ways:

1. Midge transmission – the main route of infection. A midge bites an infected animal and the virus replicated. After 4-20 days the midge is capable of infecting another animal.
2. Semen transmission – infected bulls can spread the virus through semen.
3. Transplacental transmission – the virus can pass from the dam to the foetus.

The risk period is from April–November when temperatures >12–15°C allow virus replication in midges.

Symptoms include:

• Fever, inappetence, drop in milk yield
• Reddening of mucous membranes
• Sores on nose, gums, dental pads
• Swelling of face, lips, tongue (“bluetongue”)
• Breathing difficulties, drooling
• Discharge from eyes/nose
• Lameness
• Reproductive signs: abortions, empty cows/ewes, weak or malformed offspring
• Note: Sheep often show severe signs; cattle and goats may appear healthy but still suffer fertility losses

Greenhouse Gases

Aonghusa updated his carbon footprint for the year in conjunction with local climate advisor, Colm Kelly. His data was entered onto the Bord Bia sustainability survey which allowed him to generate a carbon footprint. The carbon footprint on the farm was 11.66 kg CO2e per kg of live weight gain, which is close to the average for a beef farm. It decreased from 11.78 kg CO2e per kg of live weight in 2024 – mainly due to extra kg of beef produced on the farm.

Actions that Aonghusa could take to reduce this going forward are:

• Reducing chemical nitrogen usage by 10% through liming, spreading fertiliser when grass growth is high and getting more value from his slurry by spreading more in spring.
• Spreading all straight nitrogen as protected urea.
• Spreading 70% of slurry in spring and 30% in summer with none in autumn.
• Turning out weanlings before the end of March and cows by early April where weather allows.
• Continuing to calve all heifers at 22-26 months of age.
• Improving the terminal traits of the herd to achieve heavier carcasses, but with a focus on reducing the age at finish.
• Continuing to follow a herd health plan to reduce the risk of disease or parasite burdens, particularly for fluke which caused an issue on the farm this winter.

Figure 3: Closed silage ground which had slurry spread by LESS