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Last Friday, the Irish Aubrac Cattle Breed Society held an information evening in Cillin Hill Mart, Kilkenny.
The evening was focused on driving home the message of how well the Aubrac breed can work in a commercial setup, exemplifying traits the breed carries which work for both the dairy and beef sectors.
One of many speakers was PJ McGrath, Stratford-on-Slaney, Co Wicklow, who over the last six years has gained massive hands-on experience with the breed. He spoke of the family’s experience with the Aubracs on the home dairy herd, which keeps all progeny to slaughter as well as their relatively newly founded pedigree herd.
In the dairy herd the breed was first introduced back in 2011 as an easy-calving sire for dairy heifers. PJ said: “We bought the first ever pedigree Aubrac off our friend Paul Grace for use on the dairy herd.
"We were looking for something with ease of calving but could still provide us with high kill-outs. The Limousin breed was doing this for us but we would’ve rather a shorter gestation length, so we took a chance with the Aubrac.”
Having fulfilled his role in year one with the heifers, the McGrath family were confident enough to run the bull with some of their cows the following year.
“Heifers were having 30kg to 35kg calves that hit the ground running so we increased the number served to the Aubrac to 50 cattle. Since then, we have about 50 to 60 animals calving down to Aubracs each year, carrying all calves to slaughter.
“We have been doing this for a number of years now with the heifers coming in at a deadweight of 300kg to 340kg at 22 to 24 months, while steers are higher at 370kg to 440kg at 22 months. These are predominately R grades with the odd U after a 100-day intensive finishing period.”
Pedigree herd
Having witnessed the success of the breed on the dairy herd firsthand, PJ in partnership with Kelly Stephenson went about setting up a pedigree herd of their own.
“We started the pedigree herd on an outfarm a year after the calves were born from the dairy herd. The first heifer, Belote, was actually an import from France. Then at the society’s autumn sale that year we purchased two more, Altamont Honey and Altamont Holly. While we purchased a few over the years, the most of the herd goes back to these three females.
“We are calving around 20 purebreds now alongside a small herd of pedigree Limousin cattle and a small number of crossbreds. Sales to date have been minimum as we are still expanding and since we started we got a good run of heifer calves. Up until this year, we only had about two bulls to sell a year. These were going mostly to the dairy industry. While we have been keeping a number of the females we also sold a number to the North last year.”
Since the onset, PJ and Kelly have tried to select some of the best French bulls available, purchasing most straws through the society. This careful selection has yielded much success, at both local and national shows.
“We would’ve claimed the reserve overall title at the National Show in Tullamore last year, and the overall championship the year before. Other championships have been picked up too at the likes of Tullow and Tinahely shows. There’s not many shows with classes for the Aubrac breed yet but with time hopefully this will increase.”
With the dairy industry expanding and carcase weights decreasing, I think interest in the Aubrac breed can only increase
While the breed was first imported 25 years ago, the strong emphasis on the €uro-Star evaluations since the introduction of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme have driven the breeds to new heights.
“It wasn’t until I joined the programme that I actually realised how highly rated all the cows were. The programme hasn’t improved the breed, it’s just helped highlight Aubracs to farmers who wouldn’t have known about them before.
“It’s a breed that’s easy calving, has a short gestation and always surprise you by weighing more than they look. They tick all the boxes for the star system and last year’s sale in Tullamore was driven by this, making it one of the best yet.
“With the dairy industry expanding and carcase weights decreasing, I think interest in the Aubrac breed can only increase. Factory spec is becoming smaller and Aubrac can achieve this where other breeds would have to be killed earlier, lacking condition.
“I think it’s up to the society and AI centres to ensure only the best Aubracs are coming into Ireland from France. This with careful selection of the best in Ireland can only lead to increased use on a commercial basis with more people seeing the benefits.”
Aubrac bringing strong display of both pedigree and commercial stock
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