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Founder of the Boroside Belgian Blue herd and the newly appointed secretary of the Irish Belgian Blue Cattle Society at just 20 years of age, the future is certainly bright for young pedigree breeder Melvin Masterson.
Based in Rathnure, just outside Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, Melvin runs an 18-head pedigree Belgian Blue herd together with his parents, George snr and Carol, and brother George. Melvin points to the tremendous growth rates and weight gain of the Belgian Blue breed as the driving factor behind his decision to establish a pedigree herd of his own.
A relative newcomer to the pedigree scene, success has come thick and fast for the Wexford native since the pedigree herd’s foundation in 2010.
Rosemount Daisy
An all-Ireland championship and two reserve all-Ireland titles along with the female championship at the last two premier sales are just some of the show highlights that this select herd has accomplished in recent times.
The herd originated from the purchase of Boherard Diamond, which was bought privately, and Ballydownan Winnie, which was acquired at the Ballyfin dispersal sale. Both these original females bred very well, but it was the purchase of Rosemount Daisy that really propelled the herd to the top tier of the pedigree cattle world. 
Melvin proudly proclaims Daisy to be his best breeding cow and is looking forward to exhibiting several of her progeny on the show circuit this summer.
Past success from this particular cow’s progeny have included Boroside Ikea, reserve all-Ireland heifer calf champion 2014, as well as being first prize winner Tullamore Show 2014, and Boroside Jones, the reserve all-Ireland champion bull calf at Tinahely Show last summer.
Breeding
The breeding objective at Boroside has always been to strive to breed the most complete Belgian Blue possible. Melvin describes his perfect Belgian Blue as a “powerful, big, correct animal with length, width and muscle” – traits Melvin believes the Belgian Blue breed has in spades.
He also highlights the huge weight gain potential per calf as the main advantage of the Belgian Blue over other beef breeds.
The pedigree herd is spilt into autumn- and spring-calving, with 90% of the calves coming from embryo transfer programmes. Melvin operates a strict elective caesarean section policy at calving, with 100% of the pedigree calves born via veterinary assistance.
This is due to the fact that the maiden commercial heifers used in embryo transfer programmes are unlikely to calve a purebred Belgian Blue calf naturally and veterinary intervention is necessary to ensure calves are born healthy.
Pedigree breeding females are flushed up to twice a year and several older cows have been flushed in excess of 10 times, with further flushes planned for the autumn.
Sales
As for sales, bulls are generally sold at two years old when they have matured and developed fully. Then the bulk of the pedigree bulls are sold to commercial suckler farmers, although Melvin notes an increased demand from dairy farmers who are choosing a Belgian Blue bull for use on mature cows.
Calving difficulty when used for commercial breeding is not a major issue, with Melvin insisting that “the vast majority of crossbred Belgian Blue calves are born with little difficulty”.
On top of this, the herd sees 25% of its young stock which is offered for sale exported to the United Kingdom and Europe to join other pedigree breeding herds. Boroside J’adore is one such example, a yearling heifer which was recently exported to one of the top show herds in the UK.
At Boroside, shows and sales also form a huge part of the year’s activities, with stock from the herd exhibited at 14 shows across the country in 2015.
In addition to his own showing schedule this summer, Melvin is also playing a central role in the preparation of the annual World Belgian Blue Conference, which this year will be staged in Ireland.
BDGP
While demand for pedigree Belgian Blue heifers and breeding bulls continues to hold strong, there are some significant challenges on the horizon.
Melvin is particularly critical of the newly introduced Beef Genomics Data Programme (BDGP), as he believes a significant proportion of rogue breeders are not recording data accurately. This results in skewed data figures, with incredibly low reliability that are subsequently being used as the basis for future breeding decisions.
He also warns against a narrowing of the available gene pool, as foreign-bred pedigree bulls with little or no Irish offspring are not suitable for wide use due to their poor figures when converted using the Irish database.
Exports to continental Europe
Furthermore, Melvin points out that the top-grade commercial Belgian Blue cattle are being exported to continental Europe, with only the second and bottom tier of commercial cattle being killed domestically; this is hugely damaging to the performance values, as it is only the slaughter data from these lower-grade animals that are being recorded in Ireland.
That said, Melvin is hugely excited about the future of his Belgian Blue herd and the breed in general, while being particularly heartened by the increased demand from both the suckler and dairy sector that he has experienced for breeding bulls this past spring.
A strong export trade for commercial Belgian Blue stock further underpins the long-term viability of the breed and Melvin is confident that the breed can continue to adapt to the needs of the modern beef market.
Ever one to stand over his assertions, Melvin plans to increase his Boroside herd to breeding 20 pedigree calves in 2017.
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