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Ivan Glenn is a Suckler Farmers from Co. Donegal and has been using Salers since 1993.
He keeps around 90 suckler cows- 60 spring calvers and 30 autumn calvers on good around Newtowncunningham in Co. Donegal. He began keeping sucklers cows in 1987 buying Angus X Friesian, Simmental X Friesian and some Hereford X Friesian heifer calves from local farms. These were bulled to calf in March 1989 as 2 year olds. They were bulled first time top a Romagnola and Simmental. The Romagnola calves although very easy calved, were born almost every colour to the Simmental and Hereford Cows and mostly black to the Angus cows. Because he wanted a bit of colour consistency in his calves he stopped using Romagnola and bulled everything to Simmental from then on.
He bought his first Salers bull in autumn of 1993 initially to use on heifers to give them easier calving. The first heifer to calve to a Saler bull calved outside in September 1994 at 2 years old. To date over 100 heifers have calved unassisted to Salers bulls.
For the next four years all cows and heifers were crossed to Salers bulls. The spring born calves are weaned in October. The bulls are then fed intensively to be finished at 13-14 months the following May/June. The Autumn born calves are housed in November (the cows kept on slats with a creep for the calves) grazed the following summer with their dams, weaned in July, housed in September and finished at 16-18 months, again as bulls.
The top 1/3 of the heifers are kept as replacements and most of the rest are sold either as bulling heifers or else incalf. He now has a mixture of Simmental X Salers, Angus X Salers and an increasing number of 3/4 and 7/8 Salers cows.
The Simmental X Salers cow is an excellent cow born almost always red with a white splash on their faces- they are very milky and very good cslvers. Their one drawback is because they are so milky they need to be well fed for the first 2 to 3 years until the achieve their adult weight. Pure bred Salers cows are only fully mature at six years old.
The Salers X Angus cow is probably his ideal cow. The Salers add a bit of size and "continental" to the fleshiness of the Angus. She is easier fed and weans a good calf and can be wintered cheaper. As Donegal winters are long it is important that cows carry a bit of flesh at weaning rather than having to put it on when housed.
3/4 and 7/8 bred Salers cows have been AI'd to Belgian Blue, Culard Charolais and angus bulls. All calves were born unassisted except one exceptional double muscled Charolais heifer which was coming backward and had to be assisted.
Ivan says " Everything i had been told and read about the Salers breed has proved to be true. As more and more farmers reduce their labour or go part time we need an easy calving and easy to manage breed- Salers "THE SUCKLER COW"
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