While relatively new to the pedigree scene, having only established in 2001, the Gerrygullinane Limousin herd has made significant strides in the last number of years to reach the top. Run by Gerry Walsh and Anne Marie Clarke, who also works as an agricultural consultant, the small herd outside Ballina, Co Mayo, has achieved much of its success in recent years with the help of Gerry’s father John.

Gerry said: “We purchased the original females in 2001, but it wasn’t until 2006 when we got into it right. Up to then, we were producing calves as good as the next man, but when it came to selling them the next year, they were behind by €1,000 or €1,500. I said ‘what’s wrong here, we can all go out, buy a bag of meal and feed it’. So that’s when I started looking into genetics and how some can do it and how some cannot.”

That’s when Gerry went about securing some of the genetics which consistently produced the goods.

“At first, the odd sale would come up and anything I wanted I couldn’t afford. I had been following Rodger McCarrick’s stock at the Ploughing for a number of years and I liked the type he was producing.

“Then, in 2003, a daughter of one of his came for sale at a local mart. She would’ve been Ballina Terrific, a great granddaughter of Estelle. I bought her as a nine-month-old that day for €3,000. She was off Pelletstown Isobelle who also sold that day for €4,400 at a local commercial mart when it was hard to get €1,000 for a suckler cow.

“She had a Mas Du Clo daughter in 2006 called Derrygullinane Daisy and that was the start of it.”

Derrygullinane Daisy has since gone on to form one of the two main cow families in the herd; the other came in from the Meenogahane dispersal sale in the form of a cow and her four daughters.

“At the time of Tom Pierce’s Meenogahane dispersal sale, we purchased a number of key females, namely Otarie and her three Ideal 23 daughters, along with a Nenuphar daughter too. I was a big fan of Ideal 23, and at the time Nenophar off Ideal 23 were the ones making the money, so we used that cross quite a bit. The first sales where we began getting up to the €4,000 to €5,000 mark was in 2010 and 2011, when this line’s calves began to hit the market.”

Hitting the headlines

However, it wasn’t until 2012 when the Derrygullinane, and more recently Gerrygullinane, herd hit the headlines. While the herd was making steady progress for a number of years preceding 2012, it was the birth of Gerrygullinane Glen which made the herd a common household name.

Glen is a son of Marchermore Augustus and out of the aforementioned Derrygullinane Daisy, and while Glen’s full sister Derrygullinane Fabby, born the previous year, had caught the eye of judges in show rings, having won 12 first prizes, championships and third place in the all-Ireland Limousin finals in Tullamore in 2011, the birth of Glen confirmed the quality and consistency of this line.

“Glen got us up and running in 2012. Henry Savage judged him in Ballina in 2012 and gave him overall interbreed champion of the show at just six months of age. Christine Williams was judging Bonniconlon Show that year. Fabby was first into the ring and she won her class. Then Glen came in and you could sense she had seen something she liked because she just never took her eyes off him. She gave Glen the Limousin championship that year and he was eventually tapped out as interbreed as well.”

If being tapped out as interbreed champion of one of the biggest shows in the west at seven months wasn’t enough, Limousin judge Christine Williams, who runs the renowned Wilodge herd in England, asked to call out and see the dam of Glen.

“Having already seen Fabby the full sister at the show, they spent about a half hour looking at the cow. She asked the plan for him [Glen] and we said he was going to Tullamore Show the week after and if not sold, we thought him good enough for Carlisle in the spring.”

Progress

“She said they’d fly back again in six weeks and if he had progressed as much by then, she’d like to buy the calf. There was no talk of money or anything like that, it was just we would like to buy him.

“I arrived in Tullamore Show the following Sunday and there was a crowd of UK Limousin breeders around the calf by nine o’clock with enquiries about the purchase of Glen, but I had already offered Christine first refusal, so I was trying and trying to get through to her with no joy.

“Eventually she got back to me and I explained there was people with an interest in Glen, she enquired as to what price was on him. The deal was agreed there and then and Christine secured him for a substantial five-figure sum and, having passed numerous tests, Glen embarked on his journey from west of Ireland to become junior herd sire at Wilodge.

“In spring 2013, Glen went into Cogent for semen collection and, as agreed previously, Christine was to get a six-month advance on any semen ahead of me and then I would be able to get it three months before it officially went on sale. We knew the bull and we had faith in what he could produce, so we used him on a lot of the herd.”

If ever the phase ‘success breeds success’ had more proof, the first bull born in the Derrygullinane herd in Ireland followed in his father’s footsteps.

“Glen’s first-born calf, Derrygullinane Kingbull, was the overall male champion at the Limousin Congress last year and picked up the senior championship in Roscrea last October before selling for €11,300. He was purchased by the Hughes family, who run the Pabo herd in Wales, and was again sent into AI with ABS on arrival across the water,” said Gerry.

“To produce Glen in the first place and then to have Glen’s first son born in Ireland go all the way, and have Genus show an interest in him was a dream,” Anne Marie said.

Glen’s first daughter, Derrygullinane Kimiko, also claimed success at the Limousin Congress, claiming northwest champion at Glenamaddy before selling for €5,300 at Roscrea in October the same day Kingbull sold.

This coming year, the now 17-cow herd sees the majority of cows in calf to either Glen or Kingbull, with Glen-sired heifers put in calf to Plumtree Fantastic.

Alongside the natural calvings, the herd runs an embryo programme with Glen’s mother heavily flushed last year to Foreman, Jagger, Vantastic and Augustus.

Growing year on year

Sales have continued to grow year on year, with the main focus still on for the society’s premier sales in Roscrea.

However, over the last few years there has been a significant amount of private young heifer sales at home also.

Since profiling the Derrygullinane herd, Wilodge Lookout claimed the overall championship and sold for 60,000gns (€73,000) at the premier sale in Carlisle earlier this month.

This was Gerrygullinane Glen’s first son offered for sale in Carlisle from his new owner Christine Williams.

In addition, a second son of Glen Wilodge LJ has been sold privately to the renowned Goldies Limousin Herd as junior herd sire.