The Irish Hereford Breed Society is set to host its National Hereford Calf Show tomorrow, on Saturday (November 19).
The event is being run by the North Leinster Hereford Branch and will take place at GVM Tullamore Mart.
Ahead of the event, Next Gen Herefords will host a youth event this evening (Friday, November 18).
The inaugural Hereford youth event took place last year and was described by the society as “a huge success” with over 30 participants across three different age categories.
The society said that this year’s event “promises to be even bigger and better”.
There is a range of activities for young Hereford enthusiasts consisting of young handlers’ classes, an animal fertility workshop, clipping demo and an animal photography workshop.
In addition to this, there will be a parade of Hereford-dairy cross bull calves that are part of the Irish Hereford Charity Calf Rearing Programme which is being ran by Next Gen Herefords in association with Irish Hereford Prime.
The event has been sponsored by Irish Hereford Prime, Clippers Ireland, Animal Farmacy and Farm Wardrobe who have provided an array of prizes.
The National Hereford Calf Show
As mentioned above, The National Hereford Calf Show will be hosted by the North Leinster Hereford Branch.
There are over 100 calves entered in the 12 classes and six championships.
In addition to pedigree calf classes, there will also be a Commercial Hereford Calf class for cattle weighing under 450kg.
New for 2022 is the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) Class consisting of the highest DBI merit genotyped pedigree Hereford bulls entered in the show. This class is sponsored by Dovea Genetics.
Following the conclusion of the calf show, at 3:00p.m on Saturday, Next Gen Herefords will be host its fundraising raffle.
Prizes include:
- A pedigree Hereford heifer;
- A Balleen Hereford embryo;
- Dinner for two at the Fire steakhouse and Bar, Dublin.
Genetic Gems sale
Finally, at 3:30p.m on the Saturday, the second annual Genetic Gems heifer sale will take place.
The sale will feature 14 live lots and three frozen embryo lots. The live lots will consist of both horned and polled in-calf and maiden Hereford heifers.
Included in the sale is the Reserve National Female Hereford Champion along with numerous prize winners from the National Calf Show and many of the summer shows.
All lots are sire and dam verified, genomically tested and hypertrichosis tested and the embryo lots are EU approved and have been sourced from prize-winning herds in Ireland.
Interestingly, Lot 1 and 2 are both ‘take your pick’ lots. This involves the first two heifers in the catalogue entering the ring together. Bidding will then commence and once the hammer falls, the winning bidder will be asked to either select the heifer they want to bring home or double their bid to keep the two sisters together.
Last year’s sale saw the record Hereford male and female price smashed with €9,000 paid for Herberry 1 Lucy Ray and Grianan Orange V911 selling for €5,600.
Viewing of heifers is available from 7:00p.m this evening, (Friday, November 18).
Concluding, a statement from the society said: “The weekend promises to be a treat for all Hereford and pedigree cattle enthusiasts with something for everyone.”