Farm Smart: Galway farmer ditches bookwork to manage herd & flock performance from his phone

Farmer Case Study

Galway farmer Barney Carroll farms in partnership with his uncle Tom in Cregmore, Co. Galway — running a store-to-beef system alongside a commercial and pedigree sheep flock. Herdwatch keeps records across both enterprises sorted in seconds.

Cregmore, Co. Galway Store-to-Beef & Sheep 70 Commercial Ewes Pedigree Suffolk Flock

Barney Carroll farms in the scenic stone wall country of Cregmore in Co. Galway, in partnership with his uncle Tom McGrath. It is Tom’s farm. He has been farming it a lot longer than Barney. As a result, Barney takes a straightforward approach to learning the business.

“He knows a lot more than I do — he’s been at it a lot longer. The only way to grow is to learn from the people around you.”

Together they run a store-to-beef cattle system — buying in Friesian bullocks and finishing them — alongside around 70 commercial ewes and a small flock of pedigree Suffolk ewes. Barney is also bringing his own stamp to the operation. In particular, he has introduced new technology to improve efficiency and records across both enterprises.

Barney Carroll Cregmore Co Galway store-to-beef cattle farm Herdwatch

Barney Carroll with his finishing cattle on the family farm in Cregmore, Co. Galway.

How Barney found Herdwatch — through Rory Best

Barney first came across Herdwatch through Facebook. He spotted a video from former Irish rugby captain Rory Best — who was using the app on his own farm. Barney clicked the link, downloaded the app, and the Herdwatch team got in touch shortly afterwards.

“I listened to what he had to say about it and ended up downloading the app. The lads from Herdwatch contacted me about joining — top class and fierce easy to deal with. It’s probably the easiest thing to get signed up to. Just your herd number and a few small details and you’re ready to go.”

Recording medicines, movements and feed purchases

Before Herdwatch, recording was a persistent headache on the farm. Medicine packages had to be retrieved from the shed at night to update the book. Feed dockets piled up and got lost. Movement records were time-consuming and easy to get wrong.

Now, everything is recorded on the spot. As soon as a medicine is purchased at the vet, it goes straight into Herdwatch. When a docket is left after a feed delivery, Barney enters it on his phone before he leaves the yard. Consequently, there is no more hunting for dockets or going back to the shed at night.

Barney Carroll commercial ewes Cregmore Co Galway Herdwatch sheep records

“Recording any medicines purchased at the vets is one straight away — there’s no more going back to the shed at nighttime to get the package to record it in the book.”

“If we’re selling cattle privately, all you need is the buyer’s herd number — put it in and you’ll get a movement number you can send on as a link. That’s it done. It’s the simplest thing I’ve ever used.”

Furthermore, Barney uses Herdwatch to record fertiliser and pesticide applications across the farm’s mapped fields. He also has all the land marked out on the app. As a result, he always knows exactly what has been applied where and in what quantities.

Barney relies on Herdwatch for the following tasks across the farm:

Medicine purchases — recorded at the vet, instantly
Animal treatments and remedy tracking
Cattle movement certs — via herd number and shared link
Feed purchase dockets — entered on the phone at delivery
Field mapping and fertiliser/pesticide records
Bord Bia inspection reports

“You can keep track of basically everything you buy without having to go back looking for dockets — which we did in the past and it ran patience dry.”

Managing the sheep flock with Herdwatch

Barney Carroll pedigree Suffolk rams sheep flock Cregmore Co Galway

Barney started using Herdwatch for his sheep around March and is already seeing the benefits. He uses an EID reader connected via Bluetooth to the app — recommended by the Herdwatch team — which makes scanning and recording ewes and lambs fast and straightforward.

At lambing, each ewe’s tag number is scanned and her lamb record is entered immediately. That way, Barney knows straight away whether she is a milky ewe or not — and has a full record of each lamb from birth.

“When ewes lamb, just scan the tag number, input what they had, and get it done out of the way. You know exactly what’s what — whether she’s a milky ewe or not. I think Herdwatch is going to be even more beneficial for the sheep than the cattle here because we have more of them.”

At breeding time, Barney splits the ewes into two groups for two different rams. In the past, this meant colour-coding ewes with spray paint — resulting in animals covered in different marks for scanning results, ram identity, and mating records. Instead, he now creates two groups in Herdwatch and assigns ewes to each one.

“Instead of putting marking spray everywhere on the ewes between the ram marks, scanning results, and everything — there’s an awful lot of paint on them. This way it’s one less thing you have to be marking up. When they lamb down, you just go to the tag and you know what group they’re in.”

Moreover, Herdwatch helps Barney identify underperforming ewes at weaning. If lambs from a particular ewe consistently fall behind target weights, that ewe goes on a watchlist for potential culling at the end of the year. As a result, the flock’s efficiency improves year on year.

Watch Barney’s story

In his own words, Barney explains how Herdwatch has changed record keeping across both his cattle and sheep enterprises — and why he has already recommended it to friends and family.

You can read more real farmer stories on our farm case studies page.

The simplest app you’ll ever use on farm

For Barney, Herdwatch has taken the hassle out of records across both cattle and sheep — from medicine purchases and movement certs to lambing records and ewe group management.

“It’s the simplest thing I’ve ever used. You can’t go wrong — and even if you have any issues, the lads in Herdwatch are only a phone call away.”

Join Barney and over 17,000 farmers using Herdwatch to save time on paperwork and make better decisions on farm every day.

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