Farm Smart: Moving on with your Farm management
Ballydangan, Co. Roscommon farmer Pat Feehily runs a mixed suckler and sheep enterprise — and uses Herdwatch to stay on top of records across both, without the stress of compliance inspections catching him off guard.
Pat Feehily farms in Ballydangan, Co. Roscommon, keeping a herd of pedigree and commercial Limousin cows alongside his sheep enterprise. During the winter months, he also buys in around 200 fattening lambs — finding them useful for cleaning up pastures and keeping weeds under control. Pat would not describe himself as someone who is naturally drawn to technology. However, he is always looking for ways to improve how the farm is managed.
From compliance headache to done and dusted — on the phone
About two years ago, Pat heard about Herdwatch and decided to give it a go. The main driver was compliance. On a mixed farm, keeping on top of medicine and dosing records across both cattle and sheep was becoming difficult. Paperwork was falling behind and inspections were a source of stress. Since signing up, however, that has changed completely.
Now, whenever Pat doses a group of cattle or sheep, he enters it into Herdwatch on the spot. When he buys a remedy, it goes straight in before he leaves the yard. As a result, records are always current and compliance is never a question.
The simple things — knowing which calf belongs to which cow
Beyond compliance, Pat finds that some of the most useful moments with Herdwatch are the simple, everyday ones. When he is moving cows and needs to know which calf belongs to which cow, the answer is on his phone. Similarly, when he is thinking about selling a group of lambs, he can check their withdrawal status instantly — without having to search through books or make a phone call.
One app for everything — the supermarket of farm management
Pat uses Herdwatch across every aspect of the farm — calf registration, breeding information, spraying records, and weight recording. Furthermore, all of this is in one place rather than spread across multiple notebooks. For a mixed enterprise where records can quickly become scattered, that consolidation makes a real difference.
Inspections — no longer something to dread
For Pat, the biggest change Herdwatch has brought is in how he feels when an inspection is approaching. Previously, compliance audits were a source of anxiety. Now, because everything is recorded as it happens throughout the year, there is nothing to prepare in advance. Printing reports takes seconds and the inspector gets everything they need straight away.
Pat uses Herdwatch for the following across his mixed farm:
- Remedy purchases — recorded at the point of purchase, before leaving the yard
- Dosing records — cattle and sheep entered on the spot at the time of treatment
- Withdrawal period tracking — check lamb or cattle status before selling
- Calf registration — logged as calves are born
- Cow and calf matching — identify which calf belongs to which cow instantly
- Breeding records — serves and breeding information tracked in the app
- Weight recording — performance tracked across cattle and sheep
- Spraying records — logged for cross compliance purposes
- Compliance reports — generated in seconds for Bord Bia and QA audits
You can read more real farmer stories on our farm case studies page.
One app. Every record. No more books.
For Pat, Herdwatch has turned a mixed farm’s compliance burden into something that takes seconds to record and seconds to retrieve — whether it is a dosing record, a calf registration, or an audit report.
“It’s like a supermarket — one app does it all. There is no more recording in a load of different books.”
Join Pat and over 22,000 farmers using Herdwatch to simplify mixed farm records, stay compliant, and make every inspection stress-free.