Based in Mullinalaghta, Co. Longford, the Hand family is farming a 100-cow suckler herd.

The family farm is based on both owned and leased ground and the herd is calving in both the spring and autumn.

Speaking to Agriland, Donal and Paddy explained: "We generally calve approximately 80% of our cows in the spring and 20% of them in the autumn".

Shane Maguire from the Irish Charolais Cattle Society recently visited the farm to see the commercial suckler-cow enterprise first hand.

He explained: "The farm is running a powerhouse herd of 100 elite suckler cows.

"These are mainly all Charolais cows with some pedigrees as well as a few Charolais-Limousin cross cows and some Charolais-Salers cross cows."

All cows on the farm are bred to Charolais sires with two or three stock bulls generally residing on the farm.

Approximately 20% of the breeding stock are served to artificial insemination (AI) sires annually also.

Donal said that the Charolais stock bulls currently on the farm are Lapon and Cavelands Fenian-sired bulls and are all home-bred off a Fury Action-bred cow.

Commenting on the breeding strategy, Paddy said: "We keep about 20 of our own heifers every year for replacements.

"We then sell all remaining heifers as either weanlings or stores.

"All bulls are finished at under 20 months-of-age, with some of the bulls targeted at under-16-month bull beef."

Charolais-bred progeny

The Co. Longford-based suckler farmers believe that the Charolais genetics in their progeny is a "major boost" when selling their weanling and store heifers at the mart and when finishing their male progeny as bull beef.

Paddy highlighted the performance of the progeny sold in 2025:

Store heifers sold to an average sale price of €2,800 last autumn/winter;
Bulls slaughtered in 2025 averaged 500kg carcass-weight (under-20-month bulls) with the tops of the bulls coming into over €4,000.

"We are finding the Charolais-sired progeny are doing the best for kill-outs, thrive, hardiness and saleability," he said.

"The bulls we slaughtered last year had an average kill out percentage of 62% with some of the 'E' grades killing-out as high as 65%.

"They are great cattle to perform in our system."

Calf management

The farm is currently adding to its infrastructure and recently completed the construction of a six-bay slatted shed with a creep area to the rear for calves to lie-back in.

The concrete work was completed by Kevin and Killian Sullivan from near Abbeylara, Co. Longford.

The steel work for the new shed was completed by Donal's business, DPH Precision Engineering.

Paddy explained that the cows are generally batched in groups of five or six after calving and penned with calves of similar age.

These calves then have access to a straw-bedded lieback and have access to concentrate feed from "as soon as they start to eat it " he said.

Bulls are selected accordingly based on their genetics and heifers are generally bred to an easy-calving AI Charolais bull.

Lapon is the sire of choice for the maiden heifers and Corbaun Rory is used on any of the mature cows being bred to AI.

Replacement heifers generally calve at 30-36 months-of-age.

Paddy says like with all suckler herds, cows are monitored closely at calving.

He said that in most cases, cows will manage to calve themselves but as always, it is good to be on hand to step in to assist a cow if needs be.

He said that milk production is good in the herd and has been developed over the past few decades of keeping replacements off the more milky Charolais cows in the herd.

Some of these cows go back to Fiston breeding and Excellent as well as Roughan used on the foundation cows over 30 years ago.

Commenting on the calves, Donal said that calves generally hit the ground vigorous, lively, and eager to suck the cow.

Commenting on the plans for the future of the farm, the Hand family hope to maintain the herd at current numbers.

Paddy said that last year was "an exceptional year to be a suckler farmer" and that " the Charolais genetics in the suckler herd ensures the herd progeny is best placed to genetically deliver the highest returns for the farm" - be it sold live as weanling or store heifers or in the bull beef system sold as carcass weight.