Charolais to the fore at Ballynahinch

With another challenging year in the beef sector now over the focus on many suckler farms throughout the country now turns to the year at hand.
By The Newsroom
Published 25th Feb 2020, 09:00 BST
Frank Reid pictured with Rodney Carson Brown Danske Bank (Sponsor of our show andsale in Dungannon on March 6) and Jeremy Paynter (NI Charolais Club)Frank Reid pictured with Rodney Carson Brown Danske Bank (Sponsor of our show andsale in Dungannon on March 6) and Jeremy Paynter (NI Charolais Club)
Frank Reid pictured with Rodney Carson Brown Danske Bank (Sponsor of our show andsale in Dungannon on March 6) and Jeremy Paynter (NI Charolais Club)

Among the major decisions and projections for farm maybe be the purchase of a new stock bull, with this comes a huge range of factors that must be considered.

These include the farming system, breeding females in the herd and the end product for the marketplace.

The Charolais breed is the first choice for top breeders, given their prolific growth rate and returns that top the marketplace week on week.

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One such farmer was the winner of the 2019 Charolais Suckler herd of the year Mr Frank Reid from outside Ballynahinch Co Down.

Mr Reid and his family operate a spring calving herd of approximately 30 select cows and a small flock of commercial sheep.

The spring calving herd aims to calve in early spring and the cows comprise of predominately black and blue lim cross cows as well as approximately ten pedigree charolais cows under the Burrenvale prefix.

A major emphasis on the Reid farm is one of “quality and not quantity” whereby select cows are combined with the use of top charolais bulls to achieve the optimum product for the farms output.

The business focuses on producing top end charolais calves for sale in the winter suckling sales and Franks aim is to have bull calves coming to market in the region of 350-400kg and the heifer calves in the 300-380kg bracket, it is aimed to calf early and get teams to grass as soon as ground conditions allow, with creep feed being offered in the final eight to ten weeks prior to sale.

Over the years calves have been sold in the charolais suckler sale in Hilltown mart where the herd has achieved numerous awards and excellent prices for quality produce.

Calves currently on the ground on farm are bred out of a former Dungannon reserve senior champion Brownhill Issac purchased in the November sale 2014,

Frank commented on the quality of these calves and how they are born with little issues and when hit the ground continue to grow and thrive all the way through to weaning stage.

So satisfied with this purchase Frank purchased another bull from the same herd in November 2019 in the form of the days reserve senior champion Brownhill Owenroe, a Rumsden Fawkes son with tremendous character that he believes will cross onto the herds cows to further improve the quality of calf on the farm.

The NI Charolais Club would once again like to congratulate Frank and his family on their success in the suckler herd competition and for allowing us to visit and showcase his farm operation and to Dasnke Bank for their continued support.

The NI Charolais Club is holding its next show and sale on Friday, March 6, at Dungannon Farmers’ Market.

Show classes, which have been generously sponsored by Danske Bank, the show begins at 10.30am followed by the sale commencing at 1pm.

A quality entry of 51 bulls and 20 females which includes a draft from the Royaldowns herd will be on offer.

Catalogues are available on the British Charolais website www.charolais.co.uk or by contacting Dungannon Farmers’ Market.