In the latest episode of the Beef Brief Podcast, Agriland caught up with Cathal Doyle from Ballyroan, Co. Laois, to hear more about his work in the beef industry with Wagyu-cross cattle as well as their calf-to-beef and commercial show cattle breeding enterprise at home.

On his family's home farm, Doyle explained that the main enterprise is a calf-to-beef system.

He said that last year, almost 400 calves were reared on the farm. This year, 300-350 calves will be reared, with stocking rates being the limiting factor reducing the number of calves this spring.

The calves reared on the farm are sold as beef cattle through the Twenty20 Beef Club with Kepak.

Doyle said that the farm aims to finish all cattle at 20-24 months-of-age.

As well as dairy-calf-to-beef, the farm is also producing commercial-bred show cattle.

Doyle said: "We try to have a few calves for the November sale at Carrick-on-Shannon.

"It's a nice pastime and there's a good social aspect to it."

Click play below to listen to the conversation Cathal Doyle had with Agriland:

He explained that he has been involved in showing cattle for the past three years or so.

"Before we got into the calf-to-beef, we were in the suckler side of things so we were producing the top-end 'E' and 'U' grade sucklers at home and using a lot of artificial insemination (AI) at home," he said.

"At the time, we didn't see suckler farming progressing for us.

"Now this past year would be a great year to be at sucklers but back then, it just wasn't really for us."

Doyle said that for the commercial show cattle market, the farm is aiming to produce a Limousin-Belgian Blue cross animal with "good feet, good legs and a good of width on top".

"It's your ideal calf to have and everyone wants a winner," he said.

He noted that producing these type of calves takes "a lot of work and time" but admitted that he gets great enjoyment from being involved in this scene.

Warrendale Wagyu

Doyle said that he also works off-farm with Warrendale Wagyu in a joint venture with Kepak.

His work involves the management of the programme in Ireland and "trying to grow the programme as much as possible".

He said that Wagyu-sired calves are purchased from dairy farms involved in the initiative at 3-4 weeks-of-age and then go to beef farms rearing Wagyu-cross cattle to beef.

Doyle explained that beef farmers have a contract with Warrendale Wagyu offering "a guaranteed price".

"It's that element of security that the beef farmer likes," he added.

According to Doyle, beef farmers involved in the initiative "know they can get a minimum of €6.50/kg but then also they're getting a €1.50/kg on top of base price as a guarantee."

He said that much of the beef produced through this programme is sold in the Irish market and noted that the demand "is growing year-on-year".

Click 'play' on the Beef Brief link above to hear the full conversation with Cathal Doyle.