The highly anticipated Baileys all-Ireland champion cow competition took place at Virginia show on Wednesday evening.

Cows from all corners of the country were on show with one of the biggest entries recorded to date.

Judge on the day was Paul Miller, who runs a 410-cow herd in Worcestershire and has won top accolades in the show ring such as the NMR/RABDF Gold Cup. He slowly eliminated the 20 cows in the overall championship down to the four standouts.

As excitement built, Miller eventually tapped out Hilltara Lanthority Echo 2 as his overall champion.

This stylish third-calver was brought out by Sam McCormick, Bangor and was described by the judge as “carrying all the attributes you want in the breed”.

Maude milked nearly 11,500kgs in her last lactation of which 821kgs were milk solids.

This year she calved in June and is currently giving 65l a day. Sire behind the champion is Comestar Lauthority while the dam is home-bred Hilltara Zenity Echo.

Reserve

Tapped forward as reserve on the day was Denis and Elenor O’Neill with their second-calver Dalevalley GWY Embrace.

This second calver gave nearly 9,000kgs in her first lactation, with a protein percentage of 3.54%.

Finally, Honourable mention went to Brochan and Joseph Cocoman’s junior champion Kilwareen Fever B Showing.

This marked the second calver’s debut who is currently giving 40l a day having calved in May.

Full report to follow tomorrow