In a class of their own
A CONSISTENT breeder of Salers that are in a class of their own is Richard Fortune, who runs a pedigree herd at Castlebridge just outside of Wexford Town.
It has been the kind of week that for many breeders is never more than a dream that one day they will realise, but it’s a reality for Richard as bulls bred in his herd topped both the initial published results of the original Gene Ireland bull selection, which was made in 2013, and the Gene Ireland panel of high replacement index beef bulls for Winter 2018 which has just been published ( see opposite page).
Knottown Michael, born in 2012, has topped the former with a Replacement Index valued at €191, on the Euro scale, while August 2016 born, Knottown Roy has topped the latest listing with a very impressive Replacement Index of €273.
The herd operates under the herd name Knottown Salers and Richard’s name is well known to breeders of Salers and is strongly represented on the ICBF Stock Bull Finder, with many of the highest Replacement Index bulls on the list coming from the Fortune’s herd.
The herd runs about 115 pedigree Salers cows along with a few Charolais cows. Approximately 50 of the Salers are crossed with a Charolais bull and the rest are run as pedigree. The pedigree herd has an established exceptional average Replacement Index of a €198 placing it in the top 1pc in the country.
The herd has a 5 star average Daughter milk figure of +6.6 and 5 star average daughter calving interval of -4.11. This is backed up by 100pc of the heifers coming into the herd calving between 22 and 26 months.
The farm started with Charolais in 1987 and 11 years later in 1998, the first Salers females were bought with the purchase of a cow and heifer from Adrian Lannon, Ballyhaunis.
Over the course of the following ten years heifers were bought from the Moygara, Wicklow, Sligo, Dunlo and Brownhall herds in Ireland, as well as ten heifers imported from France.
Richard made his first trip to France in 2003 and bought a maiden heifer Tulipe. Tulipe went on to produce 12 calves with an exceptional average calving interval of 359 days.
The other most significant purchase for the herd was a set of French born twin cows; Unique and Usance. These were bought at a clearance sale in Ireland. Usance won the first RDS Champion of Champions Replacement Index award in 2013.