I farm: “Sixty acres of my own land and about 30ac of rented land. There’s 20ac in the home block here. I work three days a week on a local pig farm too.”
The herd: “I keep 20 pedigree Charolais cows and about 30 commercial cows. I do a bit of flushing and embryo work so some of the commercial cows are carrying pedigree embryos.”
Winning ways: “I recently won the pairs class at the Charolais National Calf Show in Tullamore. Colomane Rihanna and Colomane Rachel are two of the three embryo transfer heifers I have by Texan Gie and out of my homebred Doonally New daughter, Colomane Olivia who was overall reserve senior champion at Tullamore in 2019. All three heifers are entered for the elite heifer sale in Tullamore on 13 November.”
Pedigree Charolais breeder, John Ward and his son Jack, with three of his heifer. \ Andy Gibson.
Accidental breeder: “I got into pedigrees about 11 years ago. My first heifer Drumcrow Derbla ended up leaving me the most money of all I’d say, she produced bulls that have been sold across Ireland and to Scotland.”
Good cows: “I would buy a lot of cows from herd clearance sales, I’m always watching for good cows. I bought from the Cottage herd and Ian Maxwell’s Deeleview herd in Donegal over the years.”
Family: “My wife Catharina works as a radiographer and we have four boys, Jack, 17, Shane, 10, Michael, seven, and Jamie, five. Jack is big into the showing, but he’s going to be busy this year. He’s studying for the Leaving Cert and wants to be a vet, and he plays at underage level for Munster Rugby so we’re on the road a lot.”
John Ward with his wife Catharina and their sons Michael, Jack, Jamie, Shane and dog, Spot. \ Andy Gibson.
Show days: “I love it, you’d be under pressure when classes are running in two rings at the same time. We have two very good helpers for show days, our neighbours Kate Daly and David Buckley, and Noel McSweeney does a top job with the clipping for us.”
Jobs this week: “We’ll be looking at dehorning, vaccinating and getting the last of the slurry out. We’re doing the last of the training for autumn sales, walking them down our cul de sac road in the evenings.”
Weanling trade: “There’s a mighty trade for Charolais, getting over €3/kg. I sold a bull to a man from Castletownbere last year and the first trailer load of his calves made €3.11/kg, he’s delighted.”
Quotable quote: “We treat all shows the same, we have the same standard of grooming no matter where we’re going, big show or small show.”
I farm: “Sixty acres of my own land and about 30ac of rented land. There’s 20ac in the home block here. I work three days a week on a local pig farm too.”
The herd: “I keep 20 pedigree Charolais cows and about 30 commercial cows. I do a bit of flushing and embryo work so some of the commercial cows are carrying pedigree embryos.”
Winning ways: “I recently won the pairs class at the Charolais National Calf Show in Tullamore. Colomane Rihanna and Colomane Rachel are two of the three embryo transfer heifers I have by Texan Gie and out of my homebred Doonally New daughter, Colomane Olivia who was overall reserve senior champion at Tullamore in 2019. All three heifers are entered for the elite heifer sale in Tullamore on 13 November.”
Pedigree Charolais breeder, John Ward and his son Jack, with three of his heifer. \ Andy Gibson.
Accidental breeder: “I got into pedigrees about 11 years ago. My first heifer Drumcrow Derbla ended up leaving me the most money of all I’d say, she produced bulls that have been sold across Ireland and to Scotland.”
Good cows: “I would buy a lot of cows from herd clearance sales, I’m always watching for good cows. I bought from the Cottage herd and Ian Maxwell’s Deeleview herd in Donegal over the years.”
Family: “My wife Catharina works as a radiographer and we have four boys, Jack, 17, Shane, 10, Michael, seven, and Jamie, five. Jack is big into the showing, but he’s going to be busy this year. He’s studying for the Leaving Cert and wants to be a vet, and he plays at underage level for Munster Rugby so we’re on the road a lot.”
John Ward with his wife Catharina and their sons Michael, Jack, Jamie, Shane and dog, Spot. \ Andy Gibson.
Show days: “I love it, you’d be under pressure when classes are running in two rings at the same time. We have two very good helpers for show days, our neighbours Kate Daly and David Buckley, and Noel McSweeney does a top job with the clipping for us.”
Jobs this week: “We’ll be looking at dehorning, vaccinating and getting the last of the slurry out. We’re doing the last of the training for autumn sales, walking them down our cul de sac road in the evenings.”
Weanling trade: “There’s a mighty trade for Charolais, getting over €3/kg. I sold a bull to a man from Castletownbere last year and the first trailer load of his calves made €3.11/kg, he’s delighted.”
Quotable quote: “We treat all shows the same, we have the same standard of grooming no matter where we’re going, big show or small show.”
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