The Irish Moiled is an extremely ancient breed of cattle. It has been selectively bred by farmers in Ulster, the north east corner of Ireland, for hundreds of years, from the native cattle that roamed part of the world.It is the only breed of cattle that is native to Northern Ireland.
Irish Moiled cattle were traditionally kept as a house cow by subsistence farmers in Ulster. Many people today still remember the 'Moile cow' that was kept at the 'home place', before and during the second world war, and up to the 1950's. The Moile breed made a good house cow, because it is what is called a 'dual-purpose' breed, which means that cows can be milked to produce good quality milk for drinking and for making into butter and cheese, and male calves can be fattened to produce excellent quality beef with marbled fat and deep flavour.
There were other advantages of Moile cattle in Ulster subsistence farming. Farmers will tell you that Irish Moiled cattle are 'thrifty' which means that they can survive on rough pasture. They are good foragers - they will eat rough grass and weeds and will 'make a living' or survive with quite a meagre diet. Because of this foraging ability, they can survive on less acreage than other cattle breeds, a great advantage for the small subsistence farmer with only a few acres. They are also 'hardy' which means they can live outside in even the cold and wet Ulster weather. All in all, as the native cattle of this area of Ireland they had evolved over millenia to exist, rear their young and thrive in cold, wet weather and on quite poor land - making them perfect for small subsistence farmers, who, with few resources, had to provide food for their family.
After the war, in the 1950's and 1960's subsistence farming died out in Ulster, with farmers buying up land to make larger farms, and farmers producing milk and beef to sell to commercial markets, not simply to feed their own families. Ulster farmers adopted specialist European dairy and beef breeds of cattle, that produced prodigious quantities of milk, or large beef carcases, because it made farming business sense. Few farmers bothered to keep the little Irish Moiled cow, and the numbers fell dramatically, so that by the 1970s there were only 2 small herds of Irish Moiled cattle left - one was at the Toye, near Killyleagh, County Down. A small band of foresighted farmers realised that if nothing was done, the only native breed of Ulster cattle was going to soon become extinct, so they bought up a few cows and a bull from the remaining herds, and continued to produce Irish Moiled calves annually, rearing them alongside their commercial herds of cattle. This dedication saved the breed, and it is now rescued from extinction. Irish Moiled cattle have been exported to rare breed enthusiasts in Britain (including Prince Charles). This makes the breed less vulnerable because if individual herds are spread around the country, the breed is are more likely to survive an epidemic of animal disease. However, Irish Moiled cattle are still 'at risk' - the Rare Breeds Survival Trust records that there are only 450 to 750 breeding Irish Moiled cows in the entire world. With these numbers, a national epidemic, of say Foot and Mouth disease, could wipe out the entire population, and the breed would be lost forever.
People always ask us, if the breed is so rare, should we be eating them? The answer is that breeds that are popular for eating survive and thrive, because it only worth a farmer's while to keep a breed of animals if there is a market for the meat. So cook and enjoy this delicious type of beef - that way you are doing your bit to ensure that Irish Moiled cows will still exist when your grandchildren are grandparents.
