Limousin and Charolais everywhere

Biscuitus

Took a drive over the weekend to see a cousin on the other side of the country which meant passing by hundreds of farms and I noticed 95% of farms were stocked with Limousin and Charolais. About 1/10 farms had a few Angus and even less had Herefords.

Have the domestic breeds become that unpopular with most farmers changing over to continental?

patsy_mccabe

Angus and Herdford are not native. Better growth rates from Limousin and Charolais, that's the main reason.

Albert Johnson

Biscuitus wrote: »

Took a drive over the weekend to see a cousin on the other side of the country which meant passing by hundreds of farms and I noticed 95% of farms were stocked with Limousine and Charolais. About 1/10 farms had a few Angus and even less had Herefords.

Have the domestic breeds become that unpopular with most farmers changing over to continental?

I think Limousine are the most popular sire across the suckler herd in recent year's, closely followed by Charolais so they'd be the most common continental breeds. The also usually the best seller for weanlings and store cattle compared to the rest of the continental breeds.

Angus and Hereford are widely used as beef sires in the dairy herd so most of what you'd see nowadays are resulting from this cross. The "traditional" breeds have fallen out of fashion compared to the continental types in recent year's. However as Patsy mentioned above the traditional type breeds aren't all native either with most coming from the UK. Irish moiled, Droimeann, Kerry and Dexter are our native breeds which are sadly rarer still.

older by the day

I suppose in recent time the bull breeders have bred easier calving continental breeds. Back twenty years ago you were stone mad breeding to a charlois as they were huge. A few dairy near me now have charlois bulls. I was looking for a bull this weekend and all the strong Angus were sold. Mighty demand for Angus bull this year. Got an easy Hereford instead

greysides

South East: Mainly Limousin, by a large margin. Then, Angus and Hereford. All others are niche.

Rarely see Charolais or Simmental bulls.

Took a trip along some of the NW and W coast last summer. In the areas I was in, less cattle, little dairying, smaller herds, more Charolais calves than I'd seen in a long time. Huge amounts of Scottish blackfaces, really brought home the importance of that breed and the difference in land.

Biscuitus

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Angus and Herdford are not native. Better growth rates from Limousin and Charolais, that's the main reason.

What I mean by domestic is the English and Irish breeds.

greysides wrote: »

South East: Mainly Limousin, by a large margin. Then, Angus and Hereford. All others are niche.

Rarely see Charolais or Simmental bulls.

Took a trip along some of the NW and W coast last summer. In the areas I was in, less cattle, little dairying, smaller herds, more Charolais calves than I'd seen in a long time. Huge amounts of Scottish blackfaces, really brought home the importance of that breed and the difference in land.

When I went to the SE all is saw were endless fields of tillage and massive dairy farms all way ahead of growth rates in the rest of the country. It almost didn't look like Ireland .

I noticed a big drop in cattle numbers in the west. Maybe it was just the bad weather but farms that used to be full of stock were empty and getting overgrown. Even the sheep men seemed to have scaled down past the Shannon.

older by the day wrote: »

I suppose in recent time the bull breeders have bred easier calving continental breeds. Back twenty years ago you were stone mad breeding to a charlois as they were huge. A few dairy near me now have charlois bulls. I was looking for a bull this weekend and all the strong Angus were sold. Mighty demand for Angus bull this year. Got an easy Hereford instead

With the increase in dairy farms I can see the demand for AA bulls rising. The pedigree breeders are doing well but it looks like the AA suckler bull is dropping out of fashion.