Michael O'Leary looks forward to welcoming you to the annual Gigginstown House Angus Sale

​Farming Life visited the farm, near Mullingar, to meet with owner, Michael O’Leary, and farm manager, Joe O’Mahony, to find out more about what prospective buyers can expect next weekend.

This year, Gigginstown will offer an exceptional group of 45 pedigree animals – 25 strong bulls aged between 18 and 20 months, as well as 15 in-calf heifers and five maiden females.

The bulls being offered for sale next Saturday have very good terminal and replacement figures, mostly four and five stars. All of the bulls have been fertility tested and are up-to-date on their vaccine programme.

Almost all of the pregnant heifers are in-calf to the All-Ireland 2022 Champion bull, Mogeely Dram, and should provide “top quality” calves for their successful buyers.

Red Angus have been “proving popular” for the Gigginstown herd and featured in this year’s sale will be two red bulls and two red in-calf heifers.

This will provide an excellent opportunity for fans of the red Angus to secure top quality stock to add to their herds.

The Gigginstown House Angus herd was established in 1997 with a policy of investing in the very best genetics.

Michael O’Leary, who is the CEO of Ryanair, has had a passion for the breed for many years.

“I started with Angus in the mid 1980s,” he explained.

“At that time, everyone wanted the French breeds and I wanted something different.

“The Angus and Herefords were a more indigenous breed and they are relatively easy to manage and easy calving.

“With children growing up on the farm we didn’t want aggressive bulls.”

The decision to focus on the breed “paid off”, especially when companies such as Burger King began shining a spotlight on Aberdeen Angus beef.

“People recognise Angus beef for its marbling and its quality, so that decision in the 80s was sensible,” Michael added.

Growing up on a farm, the businessman wanted his family to have that same experience.

“My father had beef cattle and I always wanted my children to grow up on the farm,” he said.

“My daughter has ponies and dogs now too. It’s a great way for children to grow up.”

Michael enjoys walking the land and takes pride in his mix of Aberdeen Angus and national hunt and flat racehorses.

In more recent years, he has also invested in additional land suited to tillage.

“We are growing our own silage, corn and maize, so we are largely independent,” he said.

“It's a nice balance of pedigree and commercial Angus and tillage. We are growing around 95 per cent of our own feed inputs, which makes us very self sufficient.”

The Gigginstown Angus herd continues to grow from strength to strength, with the herd now comprising 400 cows and breeding heifers. This includes a red Angus herd numbering 30 cows and breeding heifers, all of which run alongside a commercial Angus herd that numbers just over 100 head.

The herd is managed by Joe O'Mahony and his assistant manager, Max Zinchenko.

Last year, at the Shadwell dispersal sale held at Skipton Mart, Joe successfully purchased 21 of the 94 cattle on sale, which Michael described as “quality genetics”.

These included Shadwell's young champion stock bull Stouphill Master Prince, as well as three champion in-calf heifers - Shadwell Black Bird, Shadwell Evora and Shadwell Lady Heather.

The Shadwell dispersal sale provided a once in a generation opportunity to acquire stock from one of the UK’s leading producers over the past 25 years, and Gigginstown Angus look forward to offering their progeny to Irish breeders over the coming years.

Joe O’Mahony has been with the Gigginstown herd for over 20 years.

When it comes to the popularity of the Angus breed, Joe merits the “quality, marbling and taste” that traditional breeds like Angus have.

“It was predominantly suckler herds buying in the past, but now it’s 50/50 suckler and dairy herds,” he said.

“They are an easy breed to keep; they calve themselves with the calf nearly up before the cow,” he added.

Gigginstown has always had a good trade with customers from Northern Ireland.

“We have northern progeny within the herd – we purchase from the north as well as selling to there,” Joe said.

Another Northern Ireland connection with the herd is 24-year-old Mena McCloskey who began working at Gigginstown House Angus last week.

Mena explained how her new role came about: “I came down to the sale last year and I got to know Michael and Joe.

“We have Angus at home so it's nice to come down here and get to work with a bigger herd. Here, I am working with 25 bulls.”

Mena, who studied agriculture at Greenmount and Queen’s, is busy preparing the stock for next Saturday’s sale and is already benefitting from the experience.

“They are lovely to work for,” she continued, “and I hope to be here for as long as possible.

“I am mainly seeing over the cattle getting ready for the sale.

“I’m already picking up wee things. Joe has a wealth of knowledge so I'm learning a bit more about the pedigrees and picking bulls to suit cows.”

The sale on Saturday 22 April will get underway at 12.30pm with viewing from 11.30am.

The sale is being handled by Ballyjamesduff Mart via the Marteye.ie website and buyers can either bid in person at Fennor Farm (N91 K026), or online via the Marteye.ie website.

The new champion bulls, Stouphill Master Prince, Mogeely Dram and Drumcrow 2020, will all be on display at this year’s sale.

This year, the buyer of the highest price bull and the highest price heifer will each receive a cheque for a €500 ‘luck penny’.

The charity partner of this year's sale is the Crumlin Children’s Hospital, and all proceeds from the top price animal sold on the day will be donated to the Crumlin Children’s Hospital Fundraising.

Michael O'Leary and Joe O'Mahony look forward to welcoming all visitors and, especially, prospective buyers to Fennor Farm next Saturday (22 April).