A composite breed of cattle has quietly started to cause a stir in sale rings across the country, since its introduction to the UK around four years ago.
Developed specifically for beef on dairy, with an emphasis on ease of calving, rapid early growth, and hindquarter muscularity, the INRA95 is proving to be a hit in UK markets which is prompting early users to return to the breed.
Robert Critchley, who farms with his family at Woodfold Farm, near Preston, milking 420 high production Holsteins in a flying herd, says his first batches of Holstein cross INRA95 calves have sold exceptionally well at Gisburn Auction Mart.
“Every time I’ve entered them they’ve attracted a lot of interest,” he says. “People always ask me what they are as they are quality calves, and their distinct markings in various colours don’t look quite like anything else.”
Mr Critchley’s INRA95 calves have sold equally well, and sometimes better than the British Blues he was previously selling, whose markings could be indistinct when out of a white Holstein cow.
Selling calves at around four to six weeks, he says the INRA95s are typically realising £300-£400 but have recently fetched more.
“We had the top price of £495 for five-week-old calves at a recent sale, which were hellish good bulls,” he says.
Also praising the breed’s easy calving he says they ‘come out on the small side’, and he’s never had to pull an INRA95 calf.
“The auctioneer has had positive feedback from buyers, and tells me they grow like willows, converting and growing fast and making good beef animals,” he adds.
“We are now using the INRA95 across all age ranges, trying the breed on first calf heifers for the first time this year,” he says.
“We’re so pleased with the calves that we would switch to the breed for everything if we were inseminating the cows ourselves and not tied into to a mating service which doesn’t supply this breed,” he says.
Similar success has been experienced by Will Williams from Clwchdernog on Anglesey who is now using the INRA95 breed for all beef inseminations on his dairy herd.
Milking 220, he uses sexed semen to breed dairy replacements, a Hereford bull on maiden heifers and INRA95 on everything else.
He says: “We were aware that people buying our British Blue stores were finding they needed too much feed for finishing, so we thought we’d try something new.
“We used one INRA95 bull around two years ago and had good calves that were easily born, and looked like the sort that would go on to do well.”
Living up to expectations, those he sold as stores at Morgan Evans’ Gaerwen Market made £1,300 as 18-20 month-old heifers, despite some buyers’ uncertainty of what breed they were buying.
“They probably took them for Charolais,” he says, describing them as similar to an easy-calving Charolais with calves that were ‘up and away’.
Keeping some to finish on his own farm, he says they’ve been well fleshed and consistently good throughout the growing period.
He says: “This year we will only use INRA95 beef semen, which tells you a lot.”
Breed origins
The characteristics described by users of the INRA95 stem from its origins, which include mainly Charolais and Blonde bloodlines, but with an input of genes from the Limousin, Red Meadows and Piemontese breeds.
Developed in France since the early 1960s specifically for use as beef on dairy, the breed has been strongly selected for ease of calving, speed of growth, and muscularity in the hindquarter.
Alison Dunphy, managing director of Synetics (formerly Mastergen), exclusive suppliers of INRA95 semen, says: “We’ve had reports of outstanding performance back from our users who widely inform us that their calving ease and speed with which they develop their shape and muscle, is giving both high value calves and finished carcases.”
She says interest in the breed is growing and users are typically putting a toe in the water with a few straws in their first year, but returning to become heavy users of the INRA95 once they’ve experienced the breed.
“The option of male sexed semen is proving a particular attraction and giving producers the best chance of fast-growing offspring and high carcase grades.”
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