The Irish Hereford Breed Society (IHBS) hosted its final spring show and sale of the year at Central Auctions, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, on Thursday, May 16.
Despite a slow start to the sale, the prices achieved remained steady throughout, according to a sale report from the society.
The average price in the sale was €3,000 and 24 out of 40 bulls presented for sale were sold on the day.
The judge on the day was local Hereford breeder Edward Dudley from Kilsunny Herefords in Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Edward tapped out one of the youngest bulls in the sale as his choice of champion. Ballinalick Profile PP owned by Willie Duff from Co. Tipperary.
This February 2023 bull is sired by Fisher 1 Profile and bred from Gouldingpoll 1 Kashmir 825, a Panmure 1 Henry dam.
Profile has five stars for the replacement index, four stars for the terminal index, below average for calving, €127 for the Dairy Beef Index (DBI), and just 3.3% for dairy cow calving.
This homozygous polled bull was sold for €3,800.
Michael Farrell from Co. Westmeath topped the sale at €4,700 with his second entry Castledaly Kean HH.
This January 2023-born bull was sired by Conmelvin Ollie and bred from a Haven Kingpin dam.
He is a five star replacement bull and won his class during the show before being purchased by Hereford breeder, Nigel Heatrick from Glaslough Herefords, Co. Monaghan.
Michael Farrell also sold his first entry into the sale Lot 36 Castledaly Orchard.
Another Conmelvin Ollie son – Orchard was bred from a Steil Gerard dam. Orchard has four stars for both the replacement and the terminal index, +10.6kg for carcass weight, five stars for carcass conformation and +6.3kg for milk.
This horned bull was purchased by Hereford breeder Tom Brennan of Balleen Herefords in Co. Kilkenny for €2,900.
Reserve champion of the show was awarded to Gouldingpoll 1 Acorn by Matthew Goulding from Co. Kerry.
This November 2022-born bull is sired by Panmure 1 Nugget and bred from the renowned Duchess family – Gouldingpoll 1 Duchess 602.
Acorn has four stars for the replacement index, five stars for the terminal Index, +14.6kg for carcass weight, +8.7kg for milk, the highest bull catalogued for DBI at €142 and 3.7% for dairy cow calving. Acorn was sold for €4,400.
First time exhibitor at the Hereford Society sales, Jack Larkin, also went home with an empty trailer after selling his entry, Intelagri 1 Luke, for €4,000 to Hereford breeder Marcus Kelleher from Co. Kerry.
Jack purchased this bull as a calf under a cow at the Intelagri Dispersal sale in 2023. This February 2023 bull is homozygous polled.
He is sired by Intelagri 1 Lancelot and bred from a Normanton 1 Laertes dam.
Luke has five stars for the replacement Index and the terminal Index, is +8.4kg for carcass weight, a beef cow calving figure of 2.4% and DBI of €119.
Nigel Heatrick also had a successful day of selling bulls. Nigel sold his first and second bull entered into the sale – lot 29 and lot 31.
Lot 29 Glaslough Apache was sired by Cill Cormaic Quinlan and bred from a Ballyaville Nelson dam.
Apache is a four star replacement index bull with a very easy beef cow calving figure of 0.8%, a DBI of €98 and a dairy cow calving figure of 3.1%. Apache was sold for €3,700.
The next lot into the ring, also by Nigel Heatrick, lot 31 – Glaslough Admiral was also sired by Cill Cormaic Quinlan and bred from Glaslough Thalia, a Clondrina 1110th dam.
This October 2022-born bull has a dairy cow calving figure of 3.4%, above average DBI of €87, an easy-calving beef cow figure of 1.8% and was sold to a dairy Shorthorn herd for €3,800.
The youngest and final bull into the sale also sold on the day. Moyclare Wizard was sired by Caislean Jake and bred from Moyclare Rose 43, a Free Town Nadal dam.
This March 2023 bull has four stars for the replacement index and the terminal index, +11.6kg for carcass weight, five stars for conformation, a DBI of €106 and dairy cow calving figure of 3.9%. Wizard was sold for €3,500.