Dovea Genetics Team travel to Belgium to see progeny of new Belgian Blue sires

Members of the Dovea Genetics team had the recent privilege of travelling to Belgium to see progeny of sires stocked at Dovea Genetics and some of the sires themselves. With the help of Benoit Cassart of Fabroca and Christophe Cailteux of GABelgimex the team got to see some of the top herds in Belgium who are known for breeding sires that have entered stud and for using the newest and best sires that are available. As a company, Dovea Genetics like to provide their customer with the best sires for their herd. A picture can tell a thousand words but seeing the sires and their progeny in the flesh allows us to better understand the sires that are available and in turn allows our area representative and technicians to give farmers the most appropriate sires for their herds.

The first herd that was visited on the tour was the “De Beaffuax” which was home to two of Dovea’s most well known sires, Bricolage de Beauffaux (BB4494) who is Irelands No.1 Belgian Blue sire available on the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) Active bull list and An de Beauffaux (BB4438) who is one of Dovea’s most popular Belgian blue sires on suckler herds and a renowned breeder of quality progeny. The De Beauffaux herd continues to produce quality pedigree Belgian Blue progeny that suit the Irish market for Belgian blue sires.

The next stop was the famous “De la Hasse” herd where the tour group saw pedigree Belgian Blues being reared in a natural grass-based system. There was numerous mature progeny on the farm from Tattoo VD Sysloberg (BB6703) who’s first crop of calves were born in Ireland this spring. Farmers are very happy with the size and muscularity of BB6703 calves and initial reports suggest that the bull is easily calved for the calf quality produced. The sire of BB6703 was bred from the De la Hasse herd so it was wonderful to see the quality of the stock produced from the herd in his back pedigree.

Another bull that was sourced from Belgium for stud in Dovea is Affute de Thiboumont (BB4597) so the tour visited the herd to see the current breeding stock and progeny. BB4597 is now proven in Ireland as a short gestation easy calving sire that is bringing extreme muscle, width and correctness in his progeny.  On the De Thibomount farm there were many muscular Engin D Hontoir (BB5355) females and the first crop of calves from Maradona du Champ du Moulin (BB7842) were inspected. Maradona calves were exceptionally correct muscular cattle. Maradona is available since the spring of 2022 so we are looking forward to seeing progeny on the ground later this year. 

The very impressive “Van Terbeck” herd was visited. There the group saw some very impressive progeny of new sires that are now stocked in Dovea Genetics, including Maradona du Champ du Moulin (BB7842), Jojo du Saivray and Geronimo Van Perenhof. The Van Terbeck herd is noted for exceptional muscular cattle which can be seen in bulls that were imported to stud in Dovea previously including Mats Van Terbeck (BB5367) and Leonard Van Terbeck (BB4399). The Van Terbeck herd had a big display of progeny at various ages from both new sires and sires that have ben tried and tested here in Ireland. Progeny from Geronimo Van Perenhof were very impressive so we look forward to seeing the first of the straws being used soon and seeing the resultant progeny here in Ireland.

The next stop was the “De Sberchamps” herd where again exceptional cattle were seen. Noted breeder of excellent weanlings and very good breeding daughters is Mannequin de Sberchamps (S1215) who was bred from this herd has left his mark across many suckler and pedigree herds across Ireland. Dovea Genetics now have a son of S1215 at stud called Rathlyon Olaf ET (BB8226).

The final stop of the trip was to the “Du Bois Remont” herd where the tour saw breeding daughters and progeny from Belgian Blue sires that are stocked in Dovea. Impressive Nayakou du Bois Remont (BB4737) breeding females were seen which is testament to the excellent progeny seen in Ireland also. The Dovea team were also very impressed with the Moderato de L’Empereur (BB6700) calves which were seen on farm. The first of the Moderato calves were born in Ireland this spring and farmers are very happy with the results. Also seen on this farm were very impressive crossbred calves with Maine Anjou, Culard Charolais and Belgian blue in their pedigrees with most of their sires available from Dovea Genetics.