Originally founded in 1971 with the importation of heifers from Germany, Kilbride Farm has now established itself as a consistent producer of top-quality bulls and heifers.

Started by Billy Robson, the herd of 100 is now run by his sons Michael and Norman, along with help from Michael’s son Matthew. Since the first importation of heifers 46 years ago, very few females have been purchased – instead, the strong female lines have been built on.

Michael says: “We have roughly 100 calves a year between cows and heifers, one block between March and April and then another batch in August and September. Autumn-born heifers calve in the spring and spring-born heifers calve in the autumn at around 27 to 30 months. We have calved at two years old in the past and the heifers are big enough, but the extra few months makes a difference and allows the heifers to be calved before the main herd.

“Family lines play a big part in the herd make-up. We have the Eunice line which would be by far the biggest, then Dora. Probably over half the herd are from these two families on their own. Then we have Laura’s but they are virtually all polled now, along with Gina, Iris and a few others. They’re all our own because we don’t buy in any females now, so we know the lines are right. A female has to look like a female, we wouldn’t be really interested in keeping a big bullock of a cow just because she has masses of flesh because they’d never breed. Just a nice sweet heifer, with good legs and feet, nice balance and temperament.”

Figures are becoming increasingly important when selling bulls

While female lines stand as the backbone of the herd, the Robsons take great pride in their selection of stock bulls which have brought them across Europe to source new genetics.

“If we’re buying a stock bull, well obviously it’s bloodlines, but if we’re walking through at a sale, the first thing is correctness, breed character and just the quality of the bull like easy fleshing, legs and feet.

“Figures are becoming increasingly important when selling bulls, particularly to younger farmers. They can be a useful guide but we have always picked our stock bulls on visual appearance first and if they happen to have figures to match, that’s a bonus. Our cattle have good figures, but it’s because we’ve bought good bulls that have done well. Most stock bulls we have bought had average figures to start with, but you must still have faith in yourself as a judge of stock when picking a bull.

“Bulls we’ve had in the past which have done well are Seaview Prince Charming, Shiloh W Royal Herkules, Crugmelyn Brenin, Cairnview Snazzy and Milnafua Graduate. We have two stock bulls at the moment but could probably do with another. We’re a bit light bull wise because we lost a bull and haven’t been able to replace him yet.

“There’s a Danish bull Imperator and Corksie Demario there now. The Danish bull is the main one of the two. If we don’t get another bull, his calves are so good he’ll have a lot of the heifers to serve along with the cows. So he is going to be busy. He was three months old just sucking a cow when we saw him. We liked his mother and we liked his aunt and we had seen his father in Germany and we liked him too. His homozygous polled but to be honest when we bought him we didn’t even ask the man whether he was horned, polled or whatever; it wasn’t an issue, we just liked the calf.”

Sales

While Kilbride Farm no longer exhibits at summer shows, its aim to concentrate on commercially important traits has led to great success for others who have used their genetics through the years. This breeding strategy has also seen the farm become very successful at the renowned Perth/Stirling bull sales, for which Kilbride Farm has secured seven supreme championships – which stands as the Simmental breed record.

“We’ve done very well at the sales but would rather have the money than the championships any day. People say you need to have the name, but unless the bulls are there it doesn’t matter how good your name is.”

The Stirling sales in February and October stand as a pivotal time for income on the farm. A number of bulls are culled each year with the rest sold for breeding. The two biggest days out of the year are at Stirling but they also attend Dungannon and Ballymena sales. This week, 14 bulls are attending the Stirling sales and although the Robsons have a number of hopefuls picked out, Michael says it will be hard to match last year.

“We got our highest price ever last year at Stirling. It was the top sale price on the day as well at 22,000gns. We averaged 9,000gns for nine bulls. It will be a hard year to match again. This year ,we have 14 going; we had 16 but one (Kilbride Farm Glenhead P) was purchased between Northern Ireland AI services and Robin Boyd, and another sold to a commercial breeder in Wales.”

Throughout the years, many of the champions and sale-toppers from Kilbride Farm have gone on to prove very successful in a number of the top UK and Irish herds. Through the use of AI, bulls such as Kilbride Farm Newry, Bantry, Delboy, Comber, Escalop and Dragoon continue to dominate the top prices both here in Ireland and at Stirling. Most recently, Peter and Marion O’Connell’s Kilbride Farm Bantry daughter, Raceview Goldie Dreamer, topped the Roscommon premier in November at €9,000.

Breed outlook

While the breed has always seen a huge market for its female progeny in the suckler herd, Michael considers the breed to be underestimated and underused as a terminal sire.

“In my opinion, they are one of the underestimated continental breeds. I think the bulls going to Stirling can compete with and are maybe better than other breeds as a complete package of shape, performance, etc, while still maintaining maternal traits.

“They are easily looked after, they’re hardy and the females are fertile and can rear a good calf. I think the polling will be a thing of the future. Certainly, if you are dehorning calves and you come up, and half of them are polled it saves a lot of bother. I reckon they are easier calved too – that pointy head just seems to come out easier.

“We don’t believe that a naturally fleshed, medium-sized cow is any harder to feed than a very small cow. We have plenty of 700kg to 800kg cows weaning much more than 50% of their body weight, which seems to be the industry marker. I think you should keep as good a cow as your land can support.

“In the end, the success of any breed is down to its commercial profitability, of which the main component is total kilos produced per acre. This includes both calves and cull values, plus the Simmental has the added advantage of a premium for breeding heifers.

“Some say it’s a jack of all trades, master of none, but I do think as a breed the Simmental can do virtually everything.”