Nick McCarthy & Cass Amundsen
Nick McCarthy and Cass Amundsen are farmers and butchers, producing regenerative meat near Quin, Co. Clare. Farming 13 hectares (32 ac) of free draining soils, they are passionate about quality local food. They produce beef and pork from a herd of around 12 Stabiliser and Stabiliser/Angus crosses and fatten around 19 predominantly Duroc pigs.
They are in organic conversion, and butcher the meat themselves, selling directly to their local community. In the summertime, they almost exclusively feed their pigs whey from a local goat farm, saving on feed costs and utilising an otherwise waste product.
They don’t just farm with nature in mind but Nick says ‘one of the reasons I got into farming was a love of nature, we could see an alternative way of doing things that can work with nature rather than against it’.
They don’t cut hedgerows and when trimming behind electric fences are very careful to avoid disturbing nests. Their careful management of their grasslands using Holistic planned grazing prioritises protecting both soil and insect life.
They have seen Barn Owls on the farm, and they have plans to install a pond, owl boxes and incorporating woodland into how they raise their pigs. They are 'very hopeful about the future, people need to eat, and we've got a growing customer base, we're finding it hard to keep up with demand'.
NOMINATOR: Clive Bright, Farming for Nature Ambassador.
NOMINATION:
Lúsasa farm is a beautiful regenerative farm and butchers, and an incredible example of locally-based short food chain and full-circle food production.
Cass met Nick while he was working in her native Australia. She began working in farming by WWOOFING, which evolved into working full time in agriculture and market gardening.
Nick trained as an engineer but while in Australia, by initially volunteering he built his skills and worked his way up through a butchery. Inspired by Cass, together they fostered their mutual passion for farming and decided to move to Ireland to Nick's family farm near Quin village, Co. Clare.
On the farm, which is in organic conversation, Cass and Nick run free range heritage pigs and cattle. But, future plans include developing a market gardening and cut flowers.
In Clarecastle, they rent a butcher shop where Nick butchers all their own meat for sale through their website and they open the shop on Saturday mornings from 9-1. They are also adding value to their meat and experimenting with charcuterie. One future goal is to work with other local producers and sell their meat too.
After training in Holistic Management through Brian Wehlburg in Australia and later through Ridgedale Regenerative farm in Sweden, they use Holistic Planned Grazing and monitoring to ensure their management decisions are having a positive effect on land.
Both Cass and Nick are very open and excellent communicators. They also produce high quality social media content.
I believe they would be fantastic ambassadors and a great addition to the Farming for Nature network.
