A coroner has appealed to farmers to implement vigilant safety practices or face "ferocious" consequences following a harrowing day at Cork County Coroner's court.
The death of a 37-year-old father-of-two at his family farm near Kealkill in west Cork amounted to a "scene of horror", Coroner Frank O'Connell said.
Michael McCarthy, from Cahermackee, was overcome by toxic fumes as his father tried to drag him from the slurry pit.
The scene was watched by Mr McCarthy's six-year-old son.
Teddy McCarthy said: "I jumped down and grabbed his left arm with my right arm and held on as long as I could but he was dead weight.
"He slipped from me and I had to let him go. He disappeared under the slurry".
Michael (Mike) McCarthy, a butcher by trade, was helping his father agitate the slurry in preparation for spreading when the accident happened on 20 June 2014.
Mike's son Cathal "was always with him" on the farm, Teddy McCarthy said at today's inquest.
Michael was working to knock off a hard crust that had formed on the slurry with a four foot pike when he was overcome by fumes.
"He (Michael) climbed to the lower step (a four foot drop). He said 'It's moving well now Dad'."
"Next thing I saw him stagger," Mr McCarthy said. He told his grandson to go and tell his grandmother what had happened.
At 5.57pm emergency services were called and neighbours arrived at the scene with equipment to empty the tank.
Station Officer at Bantry Fire Service Ian Vickery said: "Michael had been sucked into the pit, the agitator had still been operating."
Mr McCarthy's body was recovered from the pit at 6.40pm.
He died after inhaling extremely high levels of hydrogen sulphide from the slurry tank, Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said.
Health and Safety Inspector David Barry said fatalities resulting from slurry gas were becoming an "almost annual event".
Slurry agitation should be done on a windy day in order that gases disperse, in sheds that have been vacated by both humans and animals, and should be avoided for at least an hour after the process is complete, Mr Barry said.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner urged farmers to be vigilant in implementing the measures and said safe slurry practice should be top of farm safety agenda.
"Familiarity breeds contempt ... but the consequences are ferocious," Mr O'Connell said.
"This unfortunate tragedy has visited your home. But one of the purposes of holding an inquest in public is to highlight the danger. We all know someone who works in farming, we all have a vested interest to learn something from this case," he said.
Earlier, Mr O'Connell heard details of a case in which a three-year-old child died on his family farm in west Cork.
The child suffered crush injuries to his chest and abdomen when he was struck by the bucket of a digger.
Mr Barry said the digger driver was moving material from left to right, which is the driver's "blind side".
The child only came into view when the bucket struck him, the inquest heard.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
