Farm family: “My wife Ann, daughter Orla and I farm 25 pedigree Limousin cows on 60ac. The family affair started in 2000, with the purchase of four pedigree heifers and the Corcamore herd has continued to develop since.”

Limousin: “The Limousins have the mothering ability, they’re hardy, have longevity and milk well. No matter what you cross them with, it works.”

Calving: “We calve from July to December with the aim of having bulls ready for cows at 18 months. Calving is mostly outdoors and they stay on grass until housing for winter. Cows are kept on slats and the calves have a lay back area on straw. They’re out to grass now and last week we weighed them for BEEP. Fertiliser was difficult to purchase and we’ve used 25% less this year, however, grass growth is good at the moment.”

Sales: “While we might sell some off farm, we generally sell all bulls at the society sales. We’ve had a good run this year with our bulls averaging out at €4,600. We have a cow that has delivered five bulls over the last four years, including twins, with a combined sale price of €20,700. We’ve started to sell a few excess heifers this year but if they’re not good enough for us, we deregister them.”

Society: “The Irish Limousin Cattle Society is a great way to meet and talk to fellow breeders. There’s great comradery and people are always there to help. We had Zoom meetings during the pandemic with vets on animal health and breeders joined us from England and France.”

Quotable quote: “We see a lot of farmers buying big muscley heifers these days. We’d always say that you shouldn’t invest in a heifer based on the same criteria you would for a bull.”