Based between Killenard and Portarlington, father and son William and Cathal Bannon operate a dairy enterprise using Aubrac sires, which they run alongside their pedigree Wilcot Aubrac herd.

The Bannons have been crossing Aubrac sires on their dairy herd since 2016, and established their well-known Wilcot pedigree herd the following year.

Since then, the herd has gone from strength to strength, with the herd winning the award for the best small pedigree herd in the Irish Aubrac Cattle Society’s most recent herds' competition.

Farm walk

This weekend the Irish Aubrac Cattle Society held a farm walk on the Bannon’s farm, to showcase what the breed has to offer.

A large number of people attended the event, which involved a walk through the cattle, a number of technical talks, and up-to-date information on the breed.

Visitors at the Irish Aubrac Cattle Society's open day on Cathal and William Bannon's farm.

One of the key factors discussed was the Commercial Beef Value (CBV), and how well the Aubrac breed is performing with regard to the ICBF genetic evaluations. As of the most recent genetic evaluations, Aubrac is ranked the number one breed on the replacement index.

Why Aubrac

Cathal explained that their venture into the Aubrac breed was a result of curiosity.

“Relatives of ours had been using Aubrac straws on their dairy herd. They were drawn to their ease of calving and short gestation. Calves were well-conformed and easy to sell.

"I wanted to try the breed myself, so I purchased an Aubrac bull from Kelly and PJ McGrath in 2016 and bred him to heifers. I have not looked back since. Aubracs are our breed of choice when it comes to our dairy heifers and cows; we do not use any other beef breed. They are efficient feed converters, grade well, and have high kill-out percentages.”

Pedigree Aubrac herd

The herd's first pedigree heifers were purchased from Ray and Joe Muldowney of the Portarlington herd in Co Laois. These heifers were the foundation for the Wilcot herd today.

Aubrac stock bull on Cathal and William Bannon's farm.

This spring, Cathal calved down 17 pedigree Aubrac cows, and a further seven heifers will join the breeding herd in 2025. When selecting breeding females, Cathal explains: “I favour a sweet-headed animal, that is docile, functional, and somewhat traditional in character, weighing between circa 650kgs-700kgs.”

The Bannons are delighted with the demand for Aubrac bulls from dairy farmers. “We have been supplying bulls to the dairy farmers for nearly eight years now, with great feedback”.

Read all about it in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.