Herefords

in 2001 and he left him great cattle too and won seven interbreed championships.

Some great bulls have been bred in the herd. Not least the young bull champion at Tullamore Show, Rathregan Storm which was purchased by the breeder in Northern Ireland from whom he bought his first three Hereford cows.

It is all a long way from the days “when I used to go to places with the Hereford and breeders were telling me that I was yesterday’s man and that they could not believe why I was sticking with the Hereford because they had no future.

“I often told them that if they really did their sums and calculated the meal going into the continentals and the extra length of time it would take to get them finished they might finish up with a larger cheque but it would have cost them a lot more. I am not knocking any of the continentals but that was the way that I made up the sums,” says Val.

“It is the margin left after the costs are accounted for that matters in farming today,” he insists, putting up a convincing argument in favour of the Hereford.

“They did research in Montana (Western USA) — it is still going on — and it is very interesting because they found that the Hereford eats 35pc less food than the Continentals,” he said.

“The Herefords are out on big ranges with Charolais and Limousin. The Herefords produced 97 live calves of which 93 matured to beef. The Charolais produced 86 live calves of which 80 made it to maturity as beef animals. The Hereford was bred for the conditions on these islands,” he adds.

“It is impossible to keep the weight off the cows and they make great returns when they are culled. I have got €1,800-€2,000 for cull cows,” says Val.

He is also influenced by the premium on Herefords. “It is up to 40c/kg with the right planning and that is a tremendous help to get a good return because Hereford beef is now in big demand worldwide.

“I have a lot of customers now looking for heifers. I can’t believe that the demand is so strong. In Donegal there is a big swing towards the Hereford. I have sold four bulls to one breeder in Donegal this year and that is a county that was very strong in Continental for years,” he insists.

So what for the future plans in his own herd?

“I am going to try and maintain the herd at around 60 cows and cull any bull that I don’t think will breed well and with heifers will put them on to beef as well,” he explains.

With a lot of experience of life he quoted from Mahatma Gandhi saying: “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but will never have enough for everyone’s greed,” as he summed up his observations accumulated over a long, very varied, and most interesting life.