Brigadoon herd to feature on the Charolais World Congress tour

The British Charolais Cattle Society have selected the Brigadoon herd in Co Down to feature on the Charolais World Congress 2022 tour.
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The gates will be open to visitors from across the world at the Connolly family farm on Sunday, 17th July.

This is the only farm in Ireland, North and South to open it’s gates to visitors. Locals can also take the opportunity to join the tour to the Brigadoon Herd bot, pedigree and commercial breeders. The tour starts at 11am and finishes at 3.00pm, lunch is included in the £10 charge and visitors can register for the tour with Field Farm Tours telephone 01636 616060.

The British Charolais Cattle Society are delighted to host the World Congress this year, which attracts visitors from countries across the world including America, Australia, Hungary and Canada. The full tour starts in England, travelling through Wales and Scotland before coming to Northern Ireland. With the Northern Ireland Charolais Club hosting its national competition on Saturday 16th July at Castlewellan show, the tour’s final gala dinner will be held in the Titanic Hotel on Sunday evening following the tour at the Connolly’s farm; it’s sure to be an action packed weekend for Charolais enthusiasts.

David Connolly with some of the two year old heifers for viewingDavid Connolly with some of the two year old heifers for viewing
David Connolly with some of the two year old heifers for viewing

The Brigadoon Charolais herd was established in 1979 by Albert and Maree Connolly, with the first stock bull bought in 1981 from the Brampton Herd in Yorkshire. Brampton Petition was extensively used throughout the 80’s and they are still using the genetics today. There are 30 cows in the Brigadoon herd, 20 are spring calvers and the other 10 calve in the autumn.

They herd is currently using the stock bull Newhouse Maxamus and he now has four years of offspring on the ground for visitors to see. Maxamus has been a great success and has bred particularly well onto the Goldies Icon females, the herd’s previous stock bull with daughters providing good foundation stock for the future.

David and his father, Albert, are both passionate about showing cattle and at this year’s Royal Ulster show in May, their junior heifer, Brigadoon Sunrise, achieved junior heifer champion, overall heifer champion and reserve female champion.

Not to be outdone, the junior bull Brigadoon Sicily took the junior and male champion titles, before going on to take the overall male champion and reserve supreme tickets.

David & Albert Connolly with their prizes from this years Balmoral Show.David & Albert Connolly with their prizes from this years Balmoral Show.
David & Albert Connolly with their prizes from this years Balmoral Show.

Proof indeed that the combination of Maxamus calves from Icon daughters is the way forward for Brigadoon into a continuing successful future.

“We target the commercial market,” explained David. “Commercial buyers are all looking for ease of calving and ease of fleshing and we aim to provide just what they want.

“The cherry on the cake is selling to fellow pedigree breeders for stock bulls which we take great honour in.”

The majority of bulls are sold from home to many repeat customers with the top bulls heading to Stirling bull sales in February and October. The family were delighted when Brigadoon won the intermediate male champion with Brigadoon Maverick and overall group of three in 2017 all sired by Goldies Icon. Bulls have sold all over Northern Ireland and across GB.

Brigadoon heifers are renowned for their quality, milkiness, easy fleshing and a medium sized cow, leaving the bull to do the work

All of these cattle can be seen at Brigadoon on the day of the visit.

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