Pat Maher 

Pat is a new entrant to the organic farming scheme having started organic conversion in January 2024. Prior to this he was a conventional dairy farmer for over 50 years and is now transitioning to an organic Suckler enterprise. He farms 24 hectares (59 ac) of good-free draining soil in Cashel, Co. Tipperary and has incorporated more white clover over the past few years reducing his reliance on chemical fertiliser.

Interests

He has a keen interest in biodiversity, especially after doing a course at the Cabragh Wetlands in Thurles. He is a fierce advocate for proper hedgerow management, as he sees how poorly managed hedges get diseased and die-off. He recognises that hedgerows should be valued as having an essential purpose – providing shelter for animals. Also, he notes that ‘a laid hedge will sequester 5 or 6 times more carbon than what a hedge normally would, the laying thickens it up at the bottom’. There is also an old quarry in the middle of his land that he has fenced off and allowed to return to woodland and delights in seeing the impressive cowslip specimens inside.

Breeding stock

Pat retained some of his own breeding stock during the transition and currently the enterprise consists of 5 British Friesian cows, 16 maiden heifers which are Angus (9), British Friesian (6) and Fleckvich (1) and 29 calves. He also has 10 Angus males,1 fleckvich male and an Organic Angus stock bull. One of Pat’s key objectives in the Growing Organics programme is to establish a beef herd through selective breeding, and produce organic weanlings for the organic supply chain.

Grassland management 

Pat produces all his own silage on the farm and is passionate about good grassland management. He has excellent paddock infrastructure on the farm which allows more days at grass, provides easier management of grass at times of peak growth and make grazing less weather dependent. The paddock system also improves sward quality hence, increasing daily live weight gain and allows for taking out surplus grass resulting in top quality silage during the peak grazing season. Pat has a grass hopper and conducts weekly grass measures during the peak grazing season to get an indication of annual tonnage grown on the farm.