A slatted shed located in Co. Roscommon with a handy cattle trough design attached to the front feed barrier drew a significant amount of attention on social media app TikTok recently.
Agriland travelled to the farm to hear more.
The handy cattle trough was made by Paul Farrell. Paul is married to Siobhan Cooney, who’s father, John Cooney is a beef farmer in Mountplunkett, near Leecarrow in Co. Roscommon.
Speaking to Agriland, Paul said: “I was helping John out on the farm and he was dragging the troughs around to feed the cattle their ration. He suggested the idea of a fold-up trough to me and we agreed it would be a good idea.
“We were thinking about the design for a while and we put the first prototype together and then as we made a few more, we had the final design idea put together.”
Paul posted a video of the trough on TikTok earlier this month and the video went viral online amassing over 1.5 million views since then.
He said: “There was a while there where every 10 minutes, I had someone contacting me about the idea.”
He explained that “an awful lot of work” goes into “making up the bits and cutting steel”.
“There is a bit of time and a lot of material goes into it,” he said.
Paul has made a few of the fold-up troughs for farmers across the west of Ireland but noted that they have to be custom made as the barriers in many of the cattle sheds he sees are all slightly different.
John commented that his new feed troughs are “a great job” and said the idea “works well” on the farm.
The farm buys in store cattle and finishes them from the shed in the winter and off grass in the summer months. All cattle are sold to Kepak Athleague and John’s agent is John Mullen.
While Siobhan helps out with the cattle, her main focus is horses and she runs an equestrian centre offering horse riding lessons. Her business is called Summerview Equestrian.
Paul said that since he posted the video of the cattle trough design, a number of other people have contacted him showing him their own variations of the fold-up trough concept.
With a keen interest in all things mechanical and involving steel fabrication, Paul will no doubt be keen to use his skills to make more handy design ideas for farmers in the near future.