Milbrook Vintage

A new national record has been set by a 14 month old Limousin Bull ‘Milbrook Vintage’, bred by William Smith, Oldcastle, Co.Meath, which has been sold for €30,000 to Scottish Beef Farmer, Harry Emslie from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The Bull was Performance Tested at the National Bull Performance Test Centre, Tully,Co.Kildare which is operated by ICBF. Born on 1st September 2004, he had an average daily gain on test of 1.99 Kg/day and on the 18th October 2005 weighed 724Kgs.

It is not the first time that a record price has been set by this bloodline in the Limousin Breed, as his sire ‘Neron’ is a son of the French bull ‘Jersey’ who is the sire of the record priced UK Bull ‘Grahams Samson’ which was sold for a UK record price of €90,000 last year. The sire of ‘Vintage’, ‘Neron’ was the Champion Limousin Bull in the RDS, Tullamore and Ploughing Championships in 2003. He was also crowned champion at Tullamore and at the Ploughing in 2004.

‘Vintage’ is also a son of one of the best breeding cows in the British Isles. ‘Milbrook Kathryn’ was National All Ireland Limousin Heifer champion and also Tullamore champion in 1997. A prolific show winner in subsequent years, she is also the dam of ‘Milbrook Senhorita’, who was sold for €42,000, the current National record price for a female and ‘Milbrook Uneedme’, both of whom were All Ireland Heifer Champions in ’02 and ’05 respectively. ‘Kathryn’ is also a full sister to ‘Milbrook Monique’ who was All Ireland champion in 1999 and is the dam of ‘Milbrook R2K’ and ‘Milbrook Tanko’. ‘Tanko’ was champion Bull at Tully in 2003 and was purchased for €15,000 by the late Bill Armstrong, Western Farm Enterprises, Co.Fermanagh. Another Bull from the same bloodline ‘Milbrook Vic’, a top performer at Tully earlier this year was sold to Ian Davidson Northern Ireland for €11,500 at the Tully sale. His Granddam ‘Milbrook Freda’ was also Tullamore champion in 1996 and Reserve Champion in 1997.

The purchaser, Harry Emslie from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire in Scotland founded his herd in 2003 with fifty females. This is the first Stockbull purchased for the herd. He has founded his herd based on the backbreeding of the females. He has been following the breeding of this bull’s mother ‘Milbrook Kathryn’ for a few years now and this was his first chance to secure this bloodline for his own herd. Harry was very impressed with this bull’s performance figures, his weight for age, excellent feed conversion figures and also his sound feet & legs. Harry’s intentions for the bull are that, ‘when ‘Vintage’ arrives at his new home in Scotland he will cover the whole herd, producing commercially sound cattle with that ‘something extra’ as a bonus’.

The fact that a top Beef Producer from Scotland has looked to Ireland’s National Bull Performance Test Centre at Tully from which to source his Herd Sire once again raises the profile of the Centre and is a excellent reflection on the work that is being done by ICBF and Irelands Pedigree Beef Breeders at Tully to ensure that only the very best Pedigree Beef Bulls are put on performance Test at Tully. The 1st Tully sale of 2006 will be held on Saturday 4th March where 130 top quality performance tested Bulls will be offered for sale. All Bulls have also been health tested for TB, Brucellosis, IBR, BVD, EBL & Johnes disease. Visitors are always welcome at Tully by prior appointment and the Centre Manager, Michael Barron can be contacted at 086-3895415.