Our story

Our Foundation

The Liss Aberdeen Angus Herd can be found nestled in the hills of North Meath, overlooked by the historic Loughcrew Cairns. John McEnroe purchased the land at Liss on the 6th of November 1924. The Liss Herd was then established in 1953 by Batty McEnroe, who bought his first Aberdeen Angus heifer from his uncle Bernard McEnroe of Lakeview, Co. Cavan. This first heifer, Diana of Lakeview, sparked a lifelong love of Aberdeen Angus cattle.

Batty McEnroe with a young bull on the halter

Establishing a herd

Batty went on to establish a renowned herd of Angus cattle built on a solid foundation of Irish genetics. This then started to get acknowledged in the show ring with the herd winning many accolades at the country’s most prestigious event, the Royal Dublin Society Show. The most esteemed of which occurred in 1964 with the selection of Batty’s homebred bull ‘Duke of Liss’ as the stock bull of choice for the newly founded herd at Papal Farm in Castlegandalfo, Italy.

New genetics

In the late 1960’s, Batty started to go on ‘holidays’ to Scotland, but these holidays always coincided with certain bull shows and sales. This led to the beginning of a new era at Liss with the introduction of Scottish blood to the herd, from Eastfield ‘Julius Eric’ and Nightingale “Baron Blarney” arriving as stock bulls. These bulls brought further success in the show ring and Batty started to supply Blue-Grey heifers to Scotland.

Batty McEnroe with a bull on the halter
Batty McEnroe winning at an Angus show

Success in the show ring

In the 1970s, Batty was one of the first Irish breeders to exhibit and win at the Royal Smithfield Show in London. He also showed bulls in the old market in Perth. Batty was an influential member of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society for 50 years, holding positions of council member and president. Batty and his wife, Mamie, happily hosted many Scottish and English Aberdeen Angus club trips to their farm over the years, including the World Aberdeen Angus Forum in 1977. He felt honoured to have judged at shows all over Ireland and the UK, including Cork, Balmoral, Armagh, Perth, Royal Dublin Society and the Royal Show in Stoneleigh.

Liss today

Batty’s legacy at Liss still lives on in his son John and grandson Sean. Today the herd consists of 100 pedigree Aberdeen Angus cows. We have a predominantly spring calving herd with 30 cows calving in the autumn. We are an accredited herd in the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Whole Herd Performance Recording Scheme (WHPR). This scheme validates our calves to be of genuine age, with all our cows and calf pairs being regularly weighed and linear scored by an independent representative of the ICBF. This validates our preformance figures and increases the reliability of our data. Productivity is a priority for the herd with cows calving every 365 days. Our calves do not receive creep feed on grass.

Family photo of the McEnroes

breeding philosophy

We have been breeding moderate framed, hard working Angus cattle at Liss for over 70 years; we do not believe in extremes. The emphasis has always been on and will continue to be on; breed character, confirmation and functionality. These fundamental breeding requirements underpin our breeding strategy, which ultimately aims to meet the economic requirements of our customers in an ever changing market. 

Three generations of McEnroes with Angus cattle

A word of thanks

We would like to remember John McEnroe, who purchased the land here at Liss way back in 1924 and Batty, who started the herd in 1953. Without these two men, we would not be where we are today.

We would also like to thank all of our customers for their continued support.