The McEnroe surname has always been strongly associated with the Angus breed. However, when Leo McEnroe started breeding cattle in his own right, it was the continental breeds which first took to the hills of Lisduff in Co Cavan.

“We started breeding at Lisduff in 1987. We started with a herd of Charolais cows, bred up the numbers to 35 Charolais and 10 pedigree Limousins and one Angus cow,” said Leo.

“That’s kind of crept up now to near 100 Angus cows, while the Charolais are down to two and the Limmys are down to one.

“My father bought his first Angus in 1948 from his uncle. She was Diana of Lakeview, which formed the Duchess line. I got my original Angus from this line.

“At the time, I swapped three commercial heifers for that Duchess. The boys at home were doing embryo work at the time and they took three crossbreds off me for her. He gave me a pick or whatever and I took her. The majority of the stock in the herd now are genetically going back to that Duchess cow – there could 40 or 50 going back to her.”

Leo explains that other lines have been introduced to the herd over the years, selecting by type and genetics rather than sourcing from specific breeders. While the genetics may have varied throughout the years, Leo has a clear picture as to the type of animal he wants in the herd.

“For me, Angus is something with a good head for number one and good breed characteristics. Not an overly big cow, but a cow that’s going to rear her calf and look after herself, a functional cow really. A cow calving down at two years old or two and a half, lasting to 12 or 15 years old and maybe having a calf every 11 months. That’s what I like to see.”

The majority of the females in the herd are served naturally, which means stock bull selection is paramount to the herd’s success. Throughout the year, a range of bulls have been used from both here and the UK, each carrying different traits to complement the herd.

“I realised 10 years ago the status of the cattle were a bit too tidy, so I brought in Scottish bulls Haymount Wessuro and Curzon Entertainer which kind of gave it a bit of a lift. Following on, now we’re using Irish bulls Goulding Jim Dandy and Mogeely Josh and more recently a bull called Bunlahy Kojak which people might know from Bova AI. We also used some homebred bulls, namely Lisduff Kit, who goes back to a cow I purchased in Scotland which goes back to the famous Kim of Fordafourie line.”

Exports

At a time when the economy was getting tight and it was getting more difficult to market pedigree heifers, Leo took on a job of sourcing heifers for export markets. This market has grown steadily since the first shipment in 2007, with Leo now seeing consignments off to all parts of Europe each year.

“It was originally through the Aberdeen Angus Society, because they had a problem over there at the time and couldn’t export cattle. So we took on the job of sourcing cattle.

“We sent some very good cattle at the start and they’ve actually turned the whole thing, because they’ve left great cattle on the continent and the boys are coming back for more, so it worked to our advantage.

“The first batch actually went to Italy and the second batch went to the Azores. We have sent cattle to all parts of Europe at this stage, like Germany, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. Since the start, there’s been over 1,000 sent to Portugal.

“The biggest consignment we ever did was to Russia in 2013 when we sent off 239 head. It was a tough task, but the cattle went on well, everybody was happy and that’s the most important part.”

The herd now also contains 22 Red Angus cows, which actually started from interest shown by the export markets Leo was dealing with a few years back.

“The guys from Portugal said they had a lot of interest and enquiries for Red Angus and could I source them. So when sourcing them for this market, I also sourced some for myself. I sourced six heifers from one man, then eight heifers from another man and from that I built them up really.

“Those six or eight cows had calves and now we have 22 Red cows. I’d say there will be about 40 or 50 Red cows here when we’re finished. I run a separate Red bull with these. The first came from Scotland, but now I’m using an Irish bull with an Australian father.

“Suckler men haven’t really copped on yet on how the Red Angus can help them out, because the Limousins, in my estimation, have gone a bit hard in themselves and their frame size has gone a bit small and may be a problem with milk and calving capacity. If any wise man with a number of Limousins used a Red Angus and kept their replacements, he’d have super stock.”

Sale

With such a large number of bulls to sell each year and getting fed up of carrying small numbers of bulls to numerous bull sales around the country, Leo decided to run his own sale in Thurles.

“I thought one day out, put a lot of effort into that one day and then that’s it. We started it off four years ago. We didn’t know what it would be like, but we achieved a 75% clearance with 33 or 34 bulls.

“So then the boys that bought the bulls seemed to come back again and we had repeat customers and now their stores are coming back into the mart. Talking to the mart manager, the farmers are really happy with how the stock have come out.

“We’ve got an increase year on year, not very big by any means, but last year we averaged €2,850 for 35 bulls sold, so that’s quite good. To sell your bulls and everyone is happy, that’s the best part of the whole job. Let it be in Russia, let it be in Ireland, let it be in any part of the world.”

This year’s sale takes place in Thurles on 26 April, with a catalogue of 40 bulls and, for the first time, five select heifers.

Future outlook

“With the inclusion of James starting his own herd, our goals will be to improve the quality of the herds and try to gather as much information about our animals as possible.

“At this point in time, there’s a huge variance of Angus genetics out there. With birth weights and mature weights, we’re in a dangerous situation. The more information we have on our stock, the easier it will be to educate the people using the bulls on which market they’re for, be it dairy or suckler.”