Built up from humble beginnings, the now 30-cow herd ran by Anthony, Julie and Arran and assisted by Anthony’s brother Louie has created a strong reputation in the pedigree business over the past 20 years.

“As a young lad growing up we had great exposure to pedigree breeding, with my late father breeding Angus and Herefords.

“I starting breeding on my own in the early 1990s. When I started first, it was commercials, a small number of cows, five or so. I always had it in my mind that I would buy a pedigree Shorthorn and an Angus.”

However, these plans didn’t come to fruition until 1998 when, after many trips to Carrick-on-Shannon sales, Anthony finally found his foundation female.

“I didn’t know anything about bloodlines, just totally buying on visual and that was it. In April 1998, I eventually bought my first Beef Shorthorn Sloehill Molly from the late Larry Lavin from Lacken, Strokestown. I bought her in Carrick for 1,700gns, which was a big price on the day. She was a Mohill Jack cow and she went on to breed umpteen champions for me over the years.

“The same year, I bought my first Angus heifer from my brother Louie, Carrow Nina. The first calf off the Shorthorn cow, a red bull calf, I retained as a stock bull. What I discovered the very first year I’d his calves for sale, my youngest Shorthorn-cross heifer calf made more money than my oldest continental-cross calf. I just decided after that then, I’m going to do a bit more of this.

“Bit by bit over the years, I inched myself in. My next Shorthorn to buy was from the Lakefield herd owned by Martin Looney from Co Clare. I bought her and more or less bred off them over the years.”

Since then, the herd has built up to 30 purebred breeding females, with the majority Beef Shorthorn cattle. Currently, most of these are of traditional Irish bloodlines.

“In my view, you have to farm to the type of land you have. There’s only about 200 full traditional Shorthorn cows in the country, it’s a market I like and it’s been good to me over the years.

“I liked them for what they were. Looking at their traits – docility, fertility, easy calving, easy maintained, longevity – these were all important to me.

“Then I had to look at why go pedigree. I wasn’t in a position to be competing in the commercial market producing E and U grade animals, that didn’t do it for me as I knew I wouldn’t have been able to compete in that market with undoubtedly more difficult calvings, sections and the likes. Originally, I started filling a commercial market, because I saw a demand for my commercial Shorthorn bloodlines in the suckler herd.”

With most of the herd built up from the two foundation females, a lot of care has gone into sire selection. Since the onset, a number of top AI bulls were used before using the first bull calf, Rockville Pantene, which was out of the original cow to work back on herd’s pedigree and commercial animals at the time.

Moving forward a few years, Anthony went looking for his second main bull to be used across the herd.

“I went to a sale in Carrick in 2006 and there was a son of Dovea Sir James I liked, but someone else liked him as well. I went €3,600 on him and he went €3,650, to a suckler farmer in Cavan.

“October the same year I went to a sale in Kilfenora on speck looking for heifers. As I was there, a Shorthorn bull weanling mixed in through commercial cattle caught my eye. He had already been sold, but I followed up with the purchaser who told me the calf was out of Johnny Keane’s Bushypark herd.

“I purchased the calf for €630 and he was registered as Bushypark Enda 4th. My first heifer sold off him made €3,000 and I had several other sale-topping prices off him. That bull absolutely crowned me, because he put what I like in cattle, structural correctness, milk, bone, shape and docility. I kept several daughters off him and got a farm jump where his story will live on. I was so fond of him and what he left, I bought a half-brother of him not too long ago called Fanore Leader who equally did a superb job.”

Similar to all farms, the bull only paints half the picture and strong female lines make up the other half.

“My original cow Sloehill Molly stands out. She bred a heifer Rockville Tinkerbelle and she in turn had a heifer called Rockville Tinkerbelle 11th. She was sired by Bushypark Enda 4th and won the all-Ireland yearling heifer for me. What was nice was that I had both the mother and father in the herd.”

Record-breaking average

The herd has experienced some serious highs in the sales and show rings throughout the years. And while getting a record-breaking average at the premier sales was up there, Anthony describes one better feeling.

“The sales ring doesn’t tell lies, so it’s great to be able to turn out animals at the upper end of the market, but I get the most satisfaction when I get repeat business. That means I’m doing something right.”

In the UK, the Shorthorn breed has become increasingly popular, mainly due to the beef schemes rolled out in the last number of years for Shorthorn-cross beef.

“This is where we need to be in Ireland, have a market that our bulls are reaching record prices in the sales ring and that Shorthorn is not seen, as some farmers may see it, as just an alternative breed.

“There’s an inbuilt drive for one breed to be as good as the other, which is healthy. We all have to compete at the highest level, but not at the expense of losing the characteristics of the breed. This has also led the breed to focusing more on traits such as muscle, which in turn comes with its own difficulties and concerns over losing key characteristics of the Shorthorn breed.

“After all, Shorthorn is a traditional breed. I don’t think excessive muscle has a role to play in promoting the breed. I think we need to be very careful. We all look at the beef market, we all look at the dairy market and we look at the part-time farmer. These are our customers and calving ease and calving index is more important now than ever before.”

“First thing that has to be acknowledged is how far the Beef Shorthorn breed has come in even the last 10 years. Just go to any show and see the quality on display and how the animals are turned out and the growing interest along the ring side. It’s very heartening.

“A positive for the breed is the market isn’t flooded. I know for bulls it is sticky, that’s the challenge – we do need to get more people buying bulls. If we look at our Shorthorn breed, there’s huge opportunities, but I don’t think were capitalising on it.

“When you look at the UK market, Stirling for example, they are as competitive of any breed, they really have earned the respect in the market place. We also have those opportunities here. The BDGP scheme is hitting us right in the face.

“Shorthorns are the oldest breed in Ireland and they haven’t stood the test of time for nothing. Let everybody do what they want to do, but I think we have a real gem of an animal in the Shorthorn that ticks all the boxes.

“The type of land I have, the type of farming I do, the amount of investment I’m willing to put in – I don’t think I’d get the return on any other breed, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I would.”