Suckler farmer's wife leaves the Blue Book behind and opts for Herdwatch.
Mary Scanlan and her husband Pat are Suckler farmers based in Barnane, Templemore in county Tipperary with a herd of between 30 and 35. Their three children Michael, Patrick and Catherine have all left the home house but they still return to give a hand on the farm when needed.
Mary always handled and dealt with all of the paperwork for the family farm, which she admits took up an awful lot of time. She started using Herdwatch about 4 years ago after hearing about it through the grapevin. Finally, Mary took the plunge and signed up for Herdwatch at the National Ploughing Championships. With that Mary admits that both herself and Pat haven’t looked back since.
“I have always done the majority of the paperwork on the farm. I heard about Herdwatch and saw it advertised and then we were at the ploughing and we came across the Farm Relief Stand, we got chatting to the Herdwatch lads and ended up signing up for it there and then. We haven’t looked back since”.
Suckler Farmers, No More Blue Book
For Mary and Pat, farm life and home life has become a lot easier for them since joining Herdwatch. Before signing up to the app everything was done by hand. Mary adds the blue book that she once relied on to keep track of everything is no longer in use.
“I don’t use the blue book at all anymore, everything is now recorded through herdwatch and when we need to find something we just click into the app and there it is, we don’t have to be pulling out this blue book and writing when we sold or bought an animal. It’s all done for you via Herdwatch.”
Read more about Herdwatch for Suckler farmers
Inspection time on the farm
When it comes to inspection time, Herdwatch for Mary ticks all the boxes. She is able to keep track of and register everything on the farm through the app so when it does come to inspection time, it is all there to be checked and there is no scrambling for paperwork.
“When we have an inspection Herdwatch is so handy, everything is there in front of you on the app ready to be printed off. There’s no time wasting at all because we will have recorded everything through the app day by day.”
Make compliance easy with Herdwatch
Herdwatch is the way forward!
After seeing how easier Herdwatch has made keeping track of things on the farm,Mary could not recommend the app enough to other farmers. From registering calves easily to recording remedies, everything can be done there on the day completely hassle free and you know when you go to check for something again it will be there stored safely in the app.
“I have mentioned Herdwatch to my neighbours and told them how handy it is, every farmer should invest in it, it makes everything on the farm that bit easier to do. Before when I would register a calf, I would throw a card in the car and I could be driving around with it for a week before posting it, now it’s all done instantly once you have registered the calf.”
