In this week’s Irish Hereford Calf Rearing Series we meet up with the O’Reilly family. The O’Reilly family have a strong interest in showing cattle with brothers Eoin, Liam and Darragh helping their father Jason on the family farm any minute they get.

The Bridgehouse herd consists of 18 breeding females, consisting of pedigree Hereford, Angus and Shorthorns. From a young age growing up, their father Jason always kept pedigree Herefords. The O’Reilly always liked Hereford cattle as they are very easy on the eye, docile and it is very easy to train a Hereford animal for the shows. “They make great suckler cows, and are easily managed”. The O’Reilly brothers favourite cow on the farm is a cow which they purchased in Carrick-On-Shannon nearly five years ago. When selecting a cow for the herd the brothers ideal cow type, is an old style traditional Hereford cow, with traditional markings, medium in size, and have a good bag of milk to rear a calf.

The O’Reilly’s think this is a great project that has been set up by the Next Gen Herefords and Irish Hereford Prime. It’s great that the money is going towards charity, but it’s also a great incentive to get the young lads involved in the project.

The charity of choice for the brothers is North West STOP-Suicide Prevention. This is a very worthy charity which is voluntary based, provides counselling free of charge for all ages & works to prevent suicide by informing, educating and promoting positive mental health.