Farming just outside the village of Delvin, Co Westmeath, the Donohoe family of Francis, Bernie and daughter Jennifer have built up quite a name for their now 12-year-old Aubrac herd.

The 70-cow herd, which carries the prefix Johnstown, has obtained unrivalled success on the show circuit over the last six years, picking up no less than five overall championships at the Tullamore National Livestock Show.

Having been first introduced to the breed on a trip to France in 2004, Francis was immediately taken by the breed, which ticked all the boxes for the type of cow he wanted. With the help of a French technician, Francis set about importing some of the best of the breed back to Ireland.

“I spent about two and a half days going around different herds with my brothers, but had only found nine or 10 animals that I liked. Then, on the way to the airport to go home, we got a call saying another breeder had 15 heifers for sale. This was the Crueize herd and we ended up buying all 15 he had for sale.

“We imported 24 heifers that year from a mix of four herds, but the Crueize-bred ones certainly went on to breed the best.”

Breeding

Since its onset, while having invested largely in stock bull power, the herd has used as much AI as possible

“Altogether, including commercials, there are about 100 cows on farm at the moment. Around 60% of these would be artificially inseminated (AI), the majority being the autumn calvers. These are inside, so we have full control over them.

“We also operate a twice-daily suckling practise for the calves to show more signs of heat in the cows.”

Francis says that family lines play a huge part in the breeding programme at Johnstown, with only the best breeding cows being kept for pedigree use and the rest used on a commercial basis.

“No matter how good the calf is, I won’t sell it unless I like the mother. We all need to concentrate on cow families more when breeding. That’s what I consider one of the best things about the Gene Ireland programme – that they look at the dam as well,” Francis added.

Johnstown Keith, a young bull born last November, has recently been accepted by the maternal programme, pending tests. He rates €148 on replacement, with €110 on terminal, while carrying a calving figure of only 1.3%.

“The bull that got accepted stems from Crueize Tracy, without a doubt the best female on the farm. She will be 15 next February, is back in calf and rearing a good bull at the moment. A lot of the best animals on farm would be descendants of this cow, showing why family lines are so important.

“With this selection of the better cows and with good use of AI, matching the best bulls with the best cows, we have bred some very good breeding bulls, which have been sold on to pedigree and commercial herds throughout the country. These went on to prove their worth, with a lot of positive feedback to Johnstown.

“It was especially nice to see that, at the recent society sale, a lot of cattle had Johnstown breeding in them. I get great satisfaction in that, because it shows we’re doing something right.”

Commercial

With the type of system the farm runs, it means a significant number of calves are sold as commercial each year. To be sure Francis is getting the best he can for his calves, the lower end of the herd are all run with a Culard Charolais bull.

Francis finds this the best cross on the Aubrac cow, with progeny in demand from local buyers.

“We generally sell our commercial progeny as weanlings or stores to a local feedlot. Having killed last year’s bunch of Culard Charolais, the buyer was incredibly happy, with the majority killing over 400kg under 22 months and grading high Us and the odd E.”

Shows

While showing for the Johnstown herd only began in 2010, the benefits of careful selection were evident early on.

In the first year of exhibiting, the herd claimed the overall champion at the Beef Expo, one of the most prestigious at the time.

Following this success, the Donohoe family decided to take on the National Livestock Show in Tullamore in 2011. This proved to be worthwhile, with the herd not just winning it in 2011, but winning it for four years running.

While they settled for the reserve championship in 2015, they were back claiming the gold medal this year with Johnstown Jennifer 944. Francis considers this an important factor in putting their name on the map with regard to being seen by other pedigree breeders.

Future

“With the breed being relatively small in Ireland at the moment, we need to be sure to maintain standards in the future. We have the breed at a good level now, so I personally don’t want to see that going backwards,” said Francis.

“As for the future, the breed itself needs to be utilised more in the dairy market, especially towards dairy farmers who are fattening the progeny.

“On a calving side, just going through our weanling bulls, calving difficulty is down around 1.2%, which is as low as any breed being used in the dairy sector at the moment.”