Established by Matthew and Rita Goulding, Ballyduff, the Gouldingpoll name has become synonymous with Hereford breeding worldwide in recent years. While Matthew originally bred Angus cattle, the farm is now split 50/50 between the two breeds.

“I was mainly Angus, but when I left my job and decided to go farming full-time, I took on more land, that was about 15 years ago” added Matthew.

He continued to say that from selling the Angus bulls, people started asking about getting Herefords without horns.

“I started to look into it and discovered you can get polled Herefords. We kind of went off searching then, initially locally, but we found it hard to find homozygous polled Herefords, they all seemed to be first-cross.”

This is what led Matthew to the Dorepoll herd in Northern Ireland where he purchased his foundation cow Dorepoll 1 R51 Duchess 525. This cow went on to achieve great show ring success, along with breeding generations of champions. This was only the start of the top lines which entered the herd.

“After Duchess, we purchased Romany 1 Lucy A84 and another heifer from the Dorepoll production sale, Dorepoll 1 499 Miss Rave. Then we went to Denmark; they were really focusing on the easy calving, short gestation, moderately framed cattle there.

“This was particularly important, as it was the dairy market that attracted me in the first place. We purchased eight in 2007 and [they] were brought in live as calves.”

While importing stock was easier said than done, Matthew emphasised it certainly paid dividends.

Big challenge

“It was a big challenge that time to bring them in. The cost of the transport that time was actually more than the animals themselves, but it was the best move ever.

“Lines that came out of that then were Kashmir, famous throughout the world, breeding international champions. The Pebbles was another, a well-recognised international family also.

“We also bought the Fanny family, which originally came from Canada, along with the Keepsakes and April lines also. The majority came from the Moeskaer herd, two others came from the SMH herd and another then was from the Julesgaurd herd.”

These Danish imports and initial foundation cows formed the backbone of the herd, but through the years, other cows were bought if they fulfilled criteria based on pedigree and phenotype.

These included Ford Abbey Emma Jane, Barwise 1 Rambling Rosie and most recently the record-setting Sky High 1 Lancome Lucy. Lucy was purchased by Matthew and fellow breeder Roy Beattie of the Intelagri herd for 11,000gns at the 2017 designer gene sale in Shrewsbury.

“I got involved with Roy Beattie, when he and his friend Trevor Hanley called me up a few years ago saying they were interested in purchasing Angus and Herefords.

“They called to a few herds and, as a result of that, he [Roy] ended up purchasing an Angus and Hereford. The Hereford that time was a Kashmir. He started with that and later on he also purchased an Emma Jane and a Ravette.

“He did a big flushing programme on them cows. There was embryos exchanged for some of our other top cows and they were very successful for him.

“Then we decided we would buy Sky High 1 Lancome Lucy between us, and the same day we also purchased the pick of the heifers from the Romany herd. I later went over and picked Romany 1 Ishvale.”

Female lines

The female lines now present in the herd mean that the Goulding prefix is known worldwide, helped no end by the success that animals bred in the herd achieve in the show ring.

“Duchess and the Lucys really are the ones that stand out in the shows. Our biggest challenge in the show ring was competing with the horned animals, as they are a different type of animal.

“The Duchess did dominate for a few years; old Duchess won the female national championship twice and Duchess 591, a daughter of hers, won the overall in 2016, with her daughter taking junior female of the year the same day.

“Gouldingpoll 1 Lucy 641 was calf show champion and has bred champions again for her new owners Ray Hunt and Veronica Brennan. They had female champion last year with a calf from her and she bred another first-prizewinner at the nationals this year.

“Gouldingpoll 1 Moonshine from the Lucy line is the stock bull at Dendor and was overall breed champion at the Royal Welsh in 2018.

“Kevin and William Ryan also showed Gouldingpoll 1 Fanny 800 last year and she was national senior female championship.”

Success for bulls

The success of the females in the herd is perfectly matched by bulls which leave the herd and enter AI centres. To date, the herd has seen four Hereford bulls enter AI, along with numerous Angus bulls carrying the same prefix.

“The first Hereford bull to go AI was Gouldingpoll 1 Captain, who went to Dovea in 2010. Dovea also acquired Gouldingpoll 1 Easy Peezy in 2016. Gouldingpoll 1 Superduty went to Progressive Genetics and Gouldingpoll 1 Gold Spice went to Cogent,” said Matthew.

“Stand-out sire is Gouldingpoll 1 Super Duty. Semen of his sold to Denmark and there’s a son of his going back into Cogent now. He also bred heifers to £8,000 at last year’s Designer Gene sale. I used a lot of him, and his females are particularly impressive.

“Other bulls I used were Normanton 1 Laertes, Fabb 1 Northern Star, Fisher 1 Jaguar and Tlell 8N Red Zulu. I’m also using a good bit of Gouldingpoll 1 Captain. He breeds very good females, but we’re constantly looking for something new, something different.”

Matthew says to fit into his programme, a bull must be backed by a stand-out family line, with the emphasis clearly on the female.

Get the females right

“Get the females right, because if the female is right, the bulls will follow. They have to be feminine, long, clean in the body, with good udders, nice teats, good fertility and good legs and feet.

“I’m on my own, so the cows will have to be able to do it by themselves.”

While these traits may all be important in their own right, Matthew claims the most important of all to the success of any herd is longevity.

“The most expensive animals on the farm are in-calf heifers or first-calvers. Basically, you have to have an animal on the farm three years before she contributes anything, whereas if you have a cow that lives on well into her teens, you can sell a heifer at the other end to contribute to the income on the farm. Whereas if you have to cull a cow, you have to bring in an expensive in-calf heifer.”

Goulding opportunity sale

This year, the herd will host its first opportunity sale in Roscrea Mart on 5 October at 2pm. The herd is offering every female on farm under the age of three years old for sale. This is a unique opportunity to tap into the herd’s top lines. The sale will contain 37 heifers and seven bulls from the Gouldingpoll herd and a consignment of 10 heifers and three bulls from the Intergari herd. Twenty of these animals are the result of an intensive embryo transfer programme between the herds. Along with this, a total of 32 embryos will be offered for sale.

Matthew Goulding said: “The animals in this sale are the best we have offered to date. Stars are rare enough in the Hereford breed, but, without setting out to do it, all heifers in the sale are five stars bar one. Some are five times the breed average on some traits and the majority are in the top 1% and 2% of the breed. There are sons and daughters from national, European and international champions available. This is a rare opportunity to acquire time-tested proven genetics.”