As a young lad, Sean O’Halloran’s first taste of farming life was through milking cows on the family farm in Bodyke in east Co Clare.

But the farm eventually reached a point that many other dairy farms in the west of Ireland did at the time: get bigger or get out. Sean had to choose the latter option.

“On fragmented farms, we’ve no alternative,” Sean explained.

“We have 45ha here but it’s scattered across three different parts and there’s a main road running through it. And for every acre of good ground I have, I’d have an acre of wet ground. That doesn’t suit dairying.”

And so the dairy herd slowly transitioned into a suckler herd, with Sean starting off bringing his animals to beef.

“Because we had a lot of dairy breeding still in the herd, we really had to bring the cattle through to slaughter. There wouldn’t have been much demand for them live,” he said.

He is now running a herd of 40 suckler cows, alongside his wife Betty, selling weanlings in the autumn

But over time, Sean believed that the cost of finishing cattle was getting too high and his ability to grow cow numbers was severely hampered by having to carry the beef cattle for so long. Thankfully, by that point, continental genetics had firmly taken hold of the herd and he eventually felt that his calves were good enough to sell in a ring. He is now running a herd of 40 suckler cows, alongside his wife Betty, selling weanlings in the autumn.

Weanlings

An autumn with a good weanling trade and a Clare team in Croke Park on All-Ireland Sunday would be an autumn to remember for Sean.

“Outside of farming and the GAA, there would be very little for people in rural Ireland,” he says. Heavily involved with his local club Bodyke – home of the 1995 and 1997 all-Ireland winner Liam Doyle – and a familiar face on the Clare GAA County Board, Sean knows a thing or two about being at the top of your game.

For him, the success of selling weanlings is all about trying to have the best type of animal for the market, adding that the quality and colour of the calf is critical.

“For years, there was a long-standing tradition of suckler farmers in the west of Ireland breeding cattle with big frames for the beef finishers. But, nowadays, with the grid system in the factories, the finishers are looking at quality and conformation.”

The spring calvers are currently on a diet of dry haylage, some rolled oats and plenty of pre-calver minerals

Thirty cows calve in March and April and 10 cows calve earlier, around November time. The calves born in the back end have to be carried over the winter, but at every available opportunity, Sean will let them outside via a creep door at the back of the shed.

The spring calvers are currently on a diet of dry haylage, some rolled oats and plenty of pre-calver minerals. In another two weeks, calving will be within touching distance.

The November-born calves are sold in July, usually at the special autumn-born weanling sale in Ennis Mart. The March- and April-born calves are sold in November.

An old saying

“There’s an old saying; an ounce of breeding is worth a tonne of feeding,” laughed Sean. But it’s something he stands by too.

“For me, the best calf is the one born in April and sold in early November. He gets to grass straight away for the full summer and only gets a bit of meal for six weeks before he’s sold.”

In contrast, he said: “Those autumn-born calves come out of the shed lovely and strong but their mothers are getting nuts all winter and, the type of cows they are, you’d wonder are they putting it on their backs?

So with the red, muscly-type cows, Sean lets them with the Charolais bull to put a bit more structure into the calf

“When I can get my weanlings to 340kg or 350kg, get them into €1,000 and keep my costs as low as possible, I’m happy. But the only way to do that is by having the right calf.”

To breed the right calf, Sean runs two stock bulls – a Charolais and a Limousin. His cows would be predominantly Limousin- and Charolais-cross too. So with the red, muscly-type cows, Sean lets them with the Charolais bull to put a bit more structure into the calf.

With his larger, Charolais-cross cows, the Limousin bull is used to bring out the muscle in the calves.

This cross-breeding method also helps to deliver that golden yellow-brown coloured weanling that consistently tops the prices in the ring.