Gene Ireland Maternal Bull Breeder Participants, Dermot & Christy Kelleher with ‘Carrignacurra Unique’. Sired by ‘Indurain’ out of an ‘Excellent’ cow, she is 4.5 stars for the ‘Replacement Index’, has had 8 calves in 10 years and has an ‘Anneskeagh Ulysses’ (ALU) bull calf at foot.
Backround of the herd: The ‘Carrignacurra’ pedigree Charolais herd was established in 1989.
Maternal Breeding: The herd places a lot of emphasis on using bulls with strong maternal backrounds, such as ‘Trophee’ and ‘Blakestown Seigneur’, ‘Bova Sylvain’ and ‘Maerdy Gabriel’.
Top Maternal Cows: One of the top cows in the herd is ‘Carrignacurra Angelica’. Sired by ‘Trophee’ and out of an ‘Excellent’ cow, she has a ‘Replacement Index’ value of €110 (5 stars), which places her well inside the top 10% of Charolais cattle.
Key traits of interest: Ensuring that the milkiness of the herd is maintained and that the bulls produced continue to sire early maturing cattle is what is of most importance to the breeding direction of the herd.
Recent Sires used: Anneskeagh Ulysses, Bova Oniraloin, LTintin and Balatallion Conqueror (Padirac Stockbull).
Breeder’s comment: “We have always paid very close attention to the maternal side of the breed. A lot of bulls may have been underrated because of their lack of success in the showring however many of those bulls have turned out to have sired excellent females and in hindsight should have been used more. ‘TOH’ is one such bull that we feel was very underrated. We would also like to see the breed retain its great length, size and scope”.
