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09 April 2025

Breeding choices deliver more beef in Co. Tipperary

Breeding choices deliver more beef in Co. Tipperary


As the 2025 calving season was winding down, Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Advisor, Gordon Peppard visited John and Brendan Walsh in Ballylooby, Co. Tipperary to get the inside track on how the calving season went and how bulls they picked last year worked out when it came to calving this spring.

Last spring, John and Brendan Walsh identified the cows and heifers from which they wanted to breed replacements, and these were bred predominantly in the first weeks of the breeding season to Friesian AI sires.

Charolais sires early in the season

During the first week of the breeding season last year, some of the cows that came bulling that weren’t suitable for Friesian AI were given a Charolais AI straw. These cows were selected on their suitability to take a Charolais AI straw based on their size, height etc.

The Walshs used two Charolais bulls, both with good beef sub index and carcass weight figures on the Dairy Beef Index (DBI). They find that these bulls can extend the gestation slightly and only use them very early in the breeding season for this reason. They now have a preference for one of these Charolais bulls over the other, as the calves look better, appear to be hardier and give no trouble after calving down.

With the year that is in it, there was no problem moving these animals and these calves were all easily sold off farm and supplemented the dairy business income nicely! All the Charolais calves were either four or five star on the Commercial Beef Value (CBV).

To help with the slight gestation length issue, Brendan suggested that for this breeding season, if there are suitable cows bulling in the week or two prior to the expected breeding start date, they could use this Charolais bull and cows would calve down in late January/February period as normal.

Angus and Aubrac

With Angus used on heifers, continental AI straws are only used on mature cows, and the selection of these cows is based on their size, height and pelvic ability to calve a slightly bigger calf.

John outlined that they used a wide range of bulls and, as he likes to keep a number for finishing himself, he is fond of the Aubrac and finds they finish very well with good weights and conformations at under 24 months of age.

There were three Aubrac sires used with beef sub-indexes ranging from €120 to €161 and carcass weights from 10 to 22kg. These calves are still on the farm and are looking very well, even at a couple of weeks of age, you can already see the quality and potential of these calves. There are currently 29 Aubrac calves on the farm, 16 have a five-star CBV rating, nine are four-star and there are four three-star animals.

The Walshs also used four Aberdeen Angus bulls. These had carcass weight trait values ranging from 3 to 12kg and beef sub-indexes from €90 to €118. Ideally for Aberdeen Angus sires, a target of +10kg on the carcass weight is preferable to produce calves with above average Commercial Beef Values. Although decent quality Aberdeen Angus bulls were used, interestingly the CBVs of the AA sired calves ranged from two star to five star. Delving a bit deeper into the reasons for the lower star rated calves, it is obvious that the cow is also a significant factor to the quality of calf produced. Where two star CBV animals were produced, it is notable that the beef sub index of the cow is a strong minus figure going down to -60.

Key messages taken from the Walshs’ breeding season:

  • Longer gestation length continental sires may be used earlier in the breeding season.
  • Select calving difficulty levels that you are happy with.
  • Match bulls selected based on cow or heifer, cow size, height and pelvic width.
  • Higher beef sub index and carcass weight traits on the Dairy Beef Index will be required to be used on cows with poorer beef sub index figures to produce above average CBV calves.

Gordon Peppard is an Advisor on the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Campaign. The above article was adapted for use on Teagasc Daily from an article first published as part of the DairyBeef 500’s Dairy Beef Index Series on Agriland.

Find out more about the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Campaign here.