Last week, the 200-strong Roundhill pedigree Limousin herd, based in Fedamore, Co Limerick, took on the role as a host farm for the International Limousin Congress. The herd is owned and managed by Timothy, Doreen and Katie Corridan, with the assistance of George Doyle. Large crowds gathered, with an estimated 2,000 people attending on the day to see the herd, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Since the outset, the herd has been focused on producing the type of cow that is profitable, fertile, milky and produces a calf every 365 days and consistently breeds high-performance, U grade docile cattle.

The herd produces show-quality cattle which carry great maternal traits alongside impeccable docility. Each person I spoke to on the day started every conversation with “aren’t they fierce quiet”.

While always respecting the fundamentals of the Limousin breed, quality, consistency and selection for all the important commercial traits are the cornerstones of Roundhill’s breeding philosophy.

Herd health

With Doreen a qualified vet and playing a major role in the herd health programmes run by Munster AI, it’s no surprise herd health also plays a big part in the Roundhill herd. Members of the Scottish Agricultural College’s (SAC) premium health scheme, the herd is now accredited free of Johne’s disease since 2009, along with carrying a negative health status for BVD.

“As part of our continuous commitment to maintaining the highest possible health status, a stringent herd health programme is operated and prioritised. Cattle are vaccinated annually for BVD, leptospirosis, IBR marker vaccine and salmonella, and for clostridial disease in the young stock,” Doreen added.

The herd has a strong scientific approach to breed progression, using a high degree of performance recording.

Since its establishment, cattle on the Fedamore farm have been and continue to be linear scored and weight-recorded annually. All calving difficulties are recorded and all calves are weighed at birth, meaning the Corridans now have the largest number of birth weights in the breed database. Along with being part of the ICBF data accreditation and Gene Ireland maternal programmes, the entire herd is also genomically tested and parentage verified.

Years of focusing intensely on influential cow families and strict culling has ensured that Roundhill is one of the most uniform, performance-driven and maternally powerful cow herds in the country. Milk, fertility, soundness, udder quality, docility and breed character continue to be priorities for females.

Cow families

The cow families at Roundhill are sourced from the best available genetics in Europe and are introduced either as breeding females or as embryos.

The Corridans purchased many elite females which had already proven themselves as bull dams.

These include Disette, the mother of Ideal 23; Giroflee, the mother of Nenuphar; Melodie, the mother of Ramses; Belladone, the same family as Tonka and Leny; Joyeuse, the dam of Baileys Ice Princess; and more recently Unanime and Andrea. These proven cow families have been developed and now form the basis of this herd.

“The herd is predominantly bred by AI and an extensive embryo transfer programme is also undertaken annually to ensure rapid genetic progress.

“The main emphasis has been on French genetics, with the aim of balancing terminal and maternal traits,” according to Doreen.

Polled

In 2014, the herd took a new direction by becoming one of the first herds in Ireland to undertake a polled programme on a large scale.

This decision was taken after studying polled genetics in the UK, France and Germany and, after careful consideration, it was decided to cross its best-horned female breeders with the best-homozygous polled sires available, such as Tigris PP, Hinz PP, Ivoire PP and Idalgo PP. Now the herd has a large group of impressive heterozygous polled males and females, the oldest of which is 18 months.

The Roundhill herd is exhibited at local and national shows. “It is a lovely way to share our passion for cattle breeding, socialise with fellow breeders, meet commercial farmers and benchmark our cattle,” said Doreen.

Some successes to date include: junior champion at Tullamore Show with Roundhill EGiroflee 1164, reserve junior female at Tullamore Show with Roundhill GMelodie 1336, senior bull at Tullamore Show with Castleview Darren and all-Ireland junior heifer with Roundhill Hunanime 1440.

The Corridans find it is extremely satisfying to see Roundhill cattle and genetics perform well for other breeders.

“What a pleasure it was this year to see Roundhill Iodine 1496 win junior heifer of the year for Bobby O’Connell, and Baileys Ice Princess, daughter of Roundhill VJoyeuse 820, win senior heifer of the year for the Connell brothers,” added Doreen.

Ice Princess also went on to claim the overall national title for the Connell brothers just last Friday too.

The Roundhill herd’s bulls are sold at society sales with considerable success each year.

Premier sales in Roscrea have continued to yield success for the family, with a number of their bulls securing junior and senior championships throughout the years. These bulls have found new homes at some well-known herds throughout the UK, as well as top commercial herds.

The family prides itself in producing bulls that fill customers’ needs by producing quality, fertility-tested, functional, high-performance, high-index, high-health status bulls with a strong emphasis on calving ease and docility.

“We have been rewarded over the years with numerous repeat sales to both suckler and dairy herd-owners,” added Doreen.

Female sale

In conjunction with the Castleview Herd, Roundhill holds a biennial heifer sale. The herd’s policy is to only sell females at this sale, meaning that all the best females are present on the day.

The sale has seen great success through the years, providing a number of foundation females to new herds and others going on to be show champions for their new owners.

This year’s sale is the sixth to be run and will take place in Roscrea Mart on 16 September.