Journey comes full circle for top Belgian Blue breeder

David Pearson has been a pioneer for Belgian Blue breeding in Ireland and also works closely with one of the top AI stations in the breed’s homeland, reports Martin Ryan

Selling Belgian Blue genes back to the breed’s homeland was a landmark achievement in David Pearson’s pedigree career.

It is over a decade ago since the Fabroca AI station, one of the leading cattle breeding centres in Belgium, purchased the Laois-bred bull, Boherard Cantona, but the deal is as fresh in his breeder’s mind as if had been last week.

“The highlight over the years for me has definitely been selling Cantona to the Fabroca AI Station that was a great achievement, one that I won’t forget,” says David.

Cantona, bred in the herd at

Corbally, Ballacolla, is believed to have been the first Irishbred Belgian Blue bull purchased by the Fabroca AI Breeding Centre.

The Belgians purchased his full brother, Boherard Guinness, and more recently it has become the joint owner, with Dovea Genetics, of Boherard Hurricane.

With around 10 progeny per year being reared, Boherard is one of the smaller pedigree Belgian Blue herds in this country.

But it is certainly punching above its size on quality, and last month Boherard Cian became the first Boherard sire to be listed on the ICBF Beef Sire List.

He is one of seven Belgian Blues in the top 11 he is recommended for crossing on the dairy herd .

Belgian Blue calf registrations from the dairy herd for 2020 are showing an increase of 19pc.

But there is still some way to go in increasing the presence of the breed in the Irish dairy herd, says David.

“The problem that we have with the Belgian bulls is that they don’t have the figures in the Irish herds and don’t get the rating that they deserve,” he says.

“I go to Belgium about twice a year and pick the bulls that I think are best suited to my cows for easy calving, but it usually takes years before there are enough progeny in this country to show that they are easy calving sires.”

He understands why farmers don’t want to have difficult calvings, particularly with the increased herd sizes and the labour demands on dairy farms at calving time.

“Farmers are slow to use them while the figures are high and by the time that they get to 10 years old and the figures have improved, many of them are gone.

“They are afraid of them and feel that they won’t be able to calve them. In the larger herds they haven’t the time for the hassle, so the bred does not get the credit that it deserves in the dairy sector.

“The stars and the figures are not reflecting how good the cattle are and it is a bit unfair to the pedigree breeders.

“There would be 10,000 calves off a bull in Belgium and only a couple here.

“It can take years before they get the calving difficulty figure down in this country compared to Belgium.

It takes years before there are enough progeny in this country to show that they are easy calving sires

The 2008-born Boherard Cian is the first Boherard sire to be listed on the ICBF Beef Sire List