The making of a Champion in Co. Tipperary

PJ Ryan farms with his brother Matt near Drom, Co. Tipperary. His famous Pedigree Charolais herd are run along-side his dairy herd with some contracting work there is little time for summer shows but we fit in a few PJ says. ‘Our primary focus is on Pedigree Charolais sales and the Kilvilcorris herd is very successful in that regard’.

On Feb 17th the Ryan’s September 2016 born Kilvilcorris Mark, took the championship at the Show & Sale of Charolais bulls in Tullamore before being knocked down at €9,000 to a commercial herd in County Laois in the sales-ring. ‘We live in hope, but it is days like this that keeps pedigree breeders going.’

“We started the Charolais pedigree herd in the late 1980’s and from a few foundation females we built the herd up and now keep 50 breeding females. Last week’s Champion, Kilvilcorris Mark, is sired by the popular Goldstar Echo and bred from a strong female line of home-bred Kilvilcorris females. His dam was sired by Enfield Plexus, resulting in his five-star terminal index of €159. The first step in making a Champion is good breeding and genetics.

“A lot of work goes into preparing pedigree bulls for sales, even small things like halter training/ washing them weekly to maintain hair. From the outset Mark was given access to calf muesli, and was creep-fed for a while when suckling his dam. Later we introduced him to the GAIN ‘Champions Choice’ pedigree range. In our operation we find it is important to have a system and the GAIN ‘Champions Choice’ range supports that approach with the product range. Our bull started off on ‘GAIN Accelerator’ for a number of weeks before slowly building him onto ‘GAIN Full Throttle’ until he had reached a nice level of flesh cover. Finally, we changed him onto ‘GAIN Cruiser up until D-day, which kept him going right. We have used GAIN ‘Champions Choice’ pedigree range of feeds when preparing young bulls for premier shows and sales before, which resulted in the bulls performing, looking and most importantly selling well”.

“Heading into the sale we thought he was an exceptional bull, very correct, excellent locomotion and figures to back it up”. This price was not the highest achieved by the Kilvilcorris herd but PJ says it was close to beating our record. Looking towards the future, PJ continues high hopes for the herd with more top-quality bulls currently being prepared for the up-coming Premier Charolais sale.

Joe McCormack Steil Angus with some of his quality Angus stock

Joe McCormack - Steil Angus, Tulsk Co. Roscommon

Farming in Tulsk Co. Roscommon, Joe McCormack of the well-known Steil Angus pedigree herd uses GAIN ‘Champions Choice’ feeds when preparing cattle show and sale. "I have used GAIN Accelerator and Cruiser and found them very safe and easy to feed, cattle take to it very quickly, and they don't get sick on it. Another benefit I have noticed is cattle offered ‘Champions Choice’ feeds, hold a very nice cover of flesh and tend to stay fit but not overly fat, which is very important for a traditional breed such as Angus, as they can get over fleshed very easily. Most importantly for pedigree cattle heading to the show or sales ring, cattle tend to hold hair for longer on GAIN Cruiser. This is really important later in the year when temperatures increase and cattle can lose hair very quickly.’

For more information on GAIN Champions Choice, contact your local Glanbia Ireland Representative, branch or glanbiaconnect.com

You can also view the pedigree brochure here

First Published 25 May 2020