Brigadoon Charolais

by Chris McCullough

IF you visit any agricultural show in Northern Ireland and are on the lookout for the Charolais breed, then you are sure to bump into the renowned Connolly family from Ballynahinch.

With a full tack box and plenty of food, the Connollys are dedicated both to the breed and the local shows where they have picked up hundreds of awards for their prize-winning cattle over the years.

And, they are regular supporters of the Stirling Bull Sales, making the trip over the water to offer their stock to a wider audience.

It was back in 1979 when Albert and Maree Connolly first established the Brigadoon Charolais herd. The first stock bull, Brampton Petition, was purchased in 1981 from the famous Brampton herd in Yorkshire bred by the late Billy Turner.

Throughout the 80s Brampton Petition was used extensively on the Brigadoon herd as it progressed, with excellent results shown in the offspring. Indeed, the family is still using some of those genetics today, a testament to the excellent choice of stock bull all those years ago.

Today there are 30 cows in the Brigadoon herd, 20 normally calve in the spring and the rest in the autumn. With four years of offspring on the ground, the current stock bull is the six-year-old Newhouse Maxamus, bred by the Adam family at Forfar in Scotland.

David Connolly said: “We have been having great success with Maxamus, particularly on the females from our previous stock bull Goldies Icon.

“That perfect combination has bred some superb cattle and numerous prize-winners within the Brigadoon herd and beyond. ”

Showing cattle really became a passion for Albert, now 77, his wife Maree and is definitely in the blood of their own offspring, Maggie, David and Alison.

They have lost count of the number of winning rosettes their cattle have picked up at the local shows, especially at this year ’ s events, which have made a comeback since Covid-19 closed them down for two years.

Some of their main showing successes this year were at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society (RUAS) Balmoral Show held in May at Balmoral Park near Lisburn.

Stepping out to please the judges was Brigadoon Sunrise, their junior heifer sired by Newhouse Maxamus, which was the junior heifer champion, overall heifer champion and reserve female

Farming: Brigadoon

Location: Ballynahinch, NI

Cattle: 30 pedigree Charolais

Other: Hosted World Congress

champion at the event. And, to add extra glory, their junior bull Brigadoon Sicily won the junior and male champion titles, before going on to take the overall male champion and reserve supreme champion awards.

Entered for the Stirling Bull Sales in October, were Brigadoon Sicily a 17 month old sired by Newhouse Maxamus, who was reserve intermediate champion and sold for 15 000gns at Stirling in 2018. Sicily ’ s dam is Brigadoon Naples, a daughter of the 2015 Stirling reserve junior champion, Goldies Icon.

The Connolly ’ s second entry offered for sale at Stirling was Brigadoon Sovereign, another 17-month-old bull sired by Newhouse Maxamus.

David said: “Sovereign actually was the junior male champion at the Northern Ireland Charolais Club’ s National Show, which was held at Castlewellan Show in July.

“He is out of Brigadoon Orchid, a daughter of Goldies Icon and sired by Newhouse Maxamus. He was also the overall reserve champion at the National that day as well. ”

And what a day that was for the Connolly bulls to perform well in front of a big crowd as the onlookers also included 100 visitors from the Charolais World Congress tour.

Breeders from all over the world had been travelling around farms in Scotland, England and Wales before coming to Northern Ireland as part of the tour hosted this year by the British Charolais Cattle Society.

After visiting Castlewellan Show the tour actually visited the Connolly farm the next day to view the Brigadoon Charolais herd up close, an event that attracted another 150 local visitors on the day.

David said: “We were very proud and privileged to host a visit of the tour.

THE BREED THAT IMPROVES ALL BREEDS

www.charolais.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)2476 697222 Email: charolais@charolais.co.uk

On the day, which was graced with excellent weather, we had over 250 people on the farm.

“The visitors enjoyed a good lunch and were able to view our stock in the fields. It was a super day and one we will all remember fondly. ”

Preparations were well under way to take the two bulls to the Stirling sales, which the Connolly family are very much look forard to.

David said: “We normally have bulls to enter every year at the specialist bull sales across the water. Those sales allow us to present our stock in front of a wider audience of buyers, which means the bulls usually receive higher prices there.

“It was back in 2019 that we last sent bulls to Stirling, but obviously Covid-19 put an end to that for two years. We actually had one bull, Brigadoon Remus, entered in the bull sales in February this

year.

“However, poor weather forced us to cancel those plans. In the end we sold the bull direct to Alison Ritch and Karl Muir on Orkney. ”

This time the Brigadoon team made the trip to Stirling without a hitch.

Like his father before him Brigadoon Sicily was Reserve Intermediate Champion at Stirling, while Brigadoon Soverign was fifth in his class.