At Ballygowan Blondes we recognise the benefits of showing in promoting the breed. However we are not a show herd and do not have the traditional large framed Blondes. We breed blondes to produce terminal and maternal sires for both the pedigree and commercial markets. The Ballygowan Blonde Herd was awarded the best large herd of Blondes in NI in 2024.
Ballygowan Olive with heifer calf Velvet won best cow and calf, Tess won best senior heifer and Hallfield Titan won reserve best bull. Quite a year.
Hollie and her heifer at foot Tilly took best cow and calf in 2022 whilst Rita won best 2020 born heifer.
Maverick was reserve best stock bull in Northern Ireland 2019.
Heifers are regularly showed, a week at Balmoral show puts manners into them which stands them in good stead to be handled at any stage in the future.
We generally have bulls and breeding heifers sale - see below in the For Sale section. We only sell animals for breeding we are prepared to breed with ourselves. If they don't make our standards, you wont get a chance to buy them as they go to beef.
Ballygowan Blonde News
We had an exceptional day out at the latest 4 Breed calf show in November 2025. Ballygowan Viper and Austin taking the red ribbons in the Senior and Junior bull classes. Viper was senior champion and Austin reserve junior. The star of the show was Alison winning the junior heifer class, pairs and junior championship. This followed her picking up reserve Blonde champion and NI Calf Champion as a 4 month old at Clogher in July with 17 Blonde entries.
The to young bulls went from strength to strength selling privately in the following months. Viper was sold to Messers Richardson of Warmingham Blondes whilst Austin has been sold to a large commercial herd in Fermanagh.
We wish the new owners every success with Viper and Austin. Despite much interest Alison and Anna will remain in our herd for breeding. Angus will be for sale soon in 2026.
About Us
Ballygowan Pedigree Blonde herd was founded in 1979 by Robert and Sandra Gibson with the purchase of two maiden heifers from Southern Ireland. Tipperary Olive and Barrettstown Olive, they went on to breed many of the foundation bloodlines in Ballygowan progeny today.
We are a family run farm and have built up the herd slowly. It is a closed herd for health status reasons, apart from the careful selection of herd sires.
These include: Homebred Ballygowan Viceroy, a heifers calf weighing 704Kg at 400 days out of a Sandbrook cow.
Classic Caesar, sired by Broomfield Taurus and then Carn Gordon, a Fortescue Augustus son weighing 730Kg at 400 days.
More recently we have used Ballygrainey Jack, Blackwater Nebus, Glenvale, Budore Donald, Classic Intel. Then Ark Maverick (By Dollar, pictured below), Budore Rolo and presently Hallfield Titan (by Oscar) is now running with the calved cows and we are super pleased with him.
Breeding and farm management at Ballygowan
At Ballygowan we believe in maximum production from forage, for this reason we select easy fleshing genetics to breed cattle that do not need concentrates. Our current stock bull Hallfield Titan is producing long and very wide calves with exceptional ends and fleshing ability. We had been Ai'ing heifers to easy calving bulls such as our old stock bull Ark Maverick or related heifers are being Ai'd to Bridge Obama, we are changing track a tad and ai'ing heifers to sexed Hashtag semen with a view to increasing frame and maintaining calfability of our replacements. We think these females will cross exceptionally well to Titan. Only easy fleshing, growthy heifers with good pelvic measurements are retained for breeding - production in the form of food conversion and reproduction are two traits we value highly.
Animal Health
We have been a member of the AFBI Cattle Health Scheme for eleven years and accredited free of Lepto (since 2014), Johnes risk Level 1 (since 2014) and Vaccinated Monitored Free (VMF) of both BVD and IBR (2018 & 2016 respectfully). We have also screened clear of Neospora too. AFBI CHeCS certificates available upon request.Stock for sale.
We have recently sold both Viper and Austin, however our first bull from Hallfield Titan; Angus will be entered in the online sale in August to coincide with the NI Clubs 45 anniversary weekend. Angus stood a creditable second to Austin at the recent calf show despite being 2 months younger. He is very placid and Matty showed him in his first young handlers outing.
Ask for details for cows or heifers for sale. All stock is sold with our high health certification and can be tested for export to both mainland UK or the ROI as we have a DAERA accredited isolation / export facility.
Semen and Embryos for sale
Budore Donald semen is available (Sire of Dernasigh Tigerlily). Donald breeds great females when ever he has is used. We also have a few Ark Maverick straws for sale too (Sire of Ballygowan Sebastion and Newland Tanza).
Also a selection of Dollar embryos are available - stored with Ai Services.
Ballygowan Blondes, Blonde cattle, blonde cows, blonde bulls, Northern Ireland, Blondes for sale, Blondes in Ireland