County Fermanagh Charolais enthusiast, Stuart Bothwell will face the challenge of judging a line up of 80 bulls in Carlisle, on Thursday 23 November at the British Charolais Cattle Society’s official autumn show prior to the entries coming under the hammer the following day. The event will also feature the Christmas Cracker which will bring the total collective entry of females to 140 head to be sold on the same day.

Charolais enthusiast, Stuart Bothwell

“I’ll be searching out bulls suited to commercial producers’ current requirements,” Mr Bothwell explains. “They must have scale, good hind quarters and that width throughout. Overall, these bulls must have the potential to consistently leave those quality Charolais cross calves which have attracted premium prices at the autumn store sales both in GB and across the water here in Northern Ireland where trade has been underpinned by potential new export opportunities.

“In fact more suckler men are realising that under the new regime, as the payments recede and modulation begins to bite, then the one way they can improve their returns is by investing in a Charolais bull to produce fast growing calves that achieve unbeatable weight for age, together with good conformation and quiet temperament.”

Mr Bothwell has applied the same selection criteria back home at St Angelo House, Ballinamallard where he farms in partnership with his son, David, 300 acres plus a further 200 acres of rented LFA grassland. The unit carries the family’s noted 40 cow Killadeas herd of pedigree Charolais, which runs alongside 100 suckler cows and a 150 ewe flock.

“Initially, we used Charolais as a terminal sire over our suckler herd and such was the breed’s success in terms of commercial performance, we decided to progress and 30 years ago established a new pedigree enterprise,” he says. “Today we are focused on breeding pedigree Charolais cattle using BLUP data among our key selection criteria to achieve bulls with high Estimated Breeding Values that meet increasing demand from commercial producers. The majority of the herd’s young bulls are now within the breed’s top 5% on Beef Value with several within the top 1%.” Killadeas sold seven high Beef Value bulls in Dungannon in March to average 5,400gns.

Charolais bid to 22,000gns in Carlisle
Welshpool Charolais in strong demand peaking at 4,100gns
Dungannon Charolais peak at 8,400gns