Aubrac bull is top of the beef pops

The French-bred dairy-beef breed sire ‘Dauphin’ is proving a hit with breeders, reports Martin Ryan

Two Aubrac bulls have topped the latest ICBF listings for the top dairybeef breed sires. Leading the list is the 11year-old, French-bred Dauphin — he has a calving ease of less than 1pc and a massive Replacement Value of €207.

He has a five-star rating both within the Aubrac breed and across all breeds.

Irish AI centres describe him as “one of the highest rated proven Aubrac bulls in France on maternal abilities”, and he is a popular choice with breeders.

With a carcase conformation index value of €2.38, compared to an all-breed average of €1.38, he has five stars within both the Aubrac breed and across all breeds at 38pc reliability and carcase weight of plus 16.5kg.

In second place on the list is the 2015-born, Irish bred Deerpark Kevin.

He has a replacement index of €152, a terminal index of €137 and a calving difficulty of 2.4pc.

Introduced to AI in this country two years ago, he has Calverstown genes on both sides of his pedigree — he is bred out of Calverstown Hakka and by the sire Calverstown ILLINOIS from the oldest Aubrac herd in the country which is based in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.

Michael McCall and his French-born wife, Kim, who run the Calverstown Herd, introduced the breed to Ireland in the mid-1990s.

They have built up a substantial herd which was home to the oldest Aubrac cow in the country.

Mudgee lived to 19 years, rearing 17 calves and holding a regular calving interval of 368 days over 16 calvings and 374 including the 17th calving.

She gave birth to 11 bulls and six heifers, with Michael and Kim describing the prolific cow as “our star”.

The Aubrac breed has three bulls in the ICBF top 10 with another Frenchbred, Bison, coming in at sixth place on a Replacement Index of €123 and Terminal Index at €107, with calving difficulty rated at 2.6pc.

It is the second consecutive ICBF sire listings in which the breed has figured prominently and is likely to ensure further growth of a breed which is still a minority choice among beef breeders.

Forage efficiency

The Aubrac Society describe the breed as “cattle known for their grass-fed greatness and superior forage efficiency”.

There are about 170 herds in the country, and Department of Agriculture statistics show that 5,396 calves by an Aubrac sire were registered in 2018 with more than half of them being born to Aubrac dams.

Looking at the overall lCBF listings, five breeds — Angus, Aubrac, Limousin, Belgian Blue and Salers — occupy the top 20 places.

Numerically leading the list with seven bulls is the Angus breed, with Belgian Blue in second place on five and Aubrac third on four.

Third highest listing is the Belgian Blue, Du Stordeur Flaneur, a 17-year-old bull which was bred in Belgium.

Irish AI centres describe him ‘as one of the highest-rated proven Aubrac bulls in France on maternal abilities’