'He never did that well in the show ring because he was May-born and was always up against animals that were 10 months older than him. 'The day he was born in 2006, he stood up and took your eye,' says Marian in reference to the RSL son. 'But the old saying that the day you buy is the day you sell holds true for us.'Īll of their 10 VG or excellent-scored Jerseys are descendants of that Jersey heifer, while the Hereford's great grandson has made it into the Eurogene AI catalogue. We had to empty the bank account to buy them,' recalls Marian. When it comes to her animals, every detail, including the dates they were bought, sold, calved or died are all stored in her memory. 'We bought two heifers from a Kerry farmer back in 1974 - a Jersey and a Hereford,' says Marian. So what's a dairy farmer doing trying to market semen from a pedigree beef bull called Turlough Graceful? That's where I see the fruits of our labours.' 'I'm at my happiest when I'm down in the milking parlour,' says Marian, who shares milking the 70-strong herd with her brother.

However, almost as soon as the words fall from her mouth, she is wondering whether she could be offending anybody.Īlong with her brother John and sister Noreen, the Collins's eat, sleep and drink pedigree Holsteins, Jerseys and Herefords. 'We weren't just trying to get a bull into AI, we were taking on the system,' says pedigree cattle breeder Marian Collins. Here, we find out what's involved in going it alone with your own bull.

Last year, a Limerick farming family took the plunge and put their Hereford bull through the AI semen collection process.

Hereford bull semen catalog