With cattle numbers constantly rising for the Salers breed in recent years, so too is the amount of new exhibitors. This year, the society made Tullamore the host of the national calf finals.

While the championships would usually be held alongside the society’s autumn sale, due to a gap year last year, exhibitors were keen to make sure the 2017 calf finals went ahead again, thus making it part of the Tullamore Show was an easy choice.

The finals consisted of two main classes for animals born between September and December 2016, with a class for both males and females. These classes carried a prize fund of €500 each, with €200 for the first-prizewinner.

Young bulls

Judge on the day was Peter Donger of the Seawell Salers herd in Towcester, England. First into the ring were the young bulls. Coming out on top of this class was Manusmore Result from John Burke, Ennis, Co Clare.

This September-born bull is homebred on both sides, with Baltazar and Seducteur standing as the grandsires.

Following close on his heels was Bernard Hunt with Sligo Rebel, who secured the reserve spot. This November 2016-born bull was one of the youngest bulls in the class and was sired by the Dovea Genetics bull Ulsan.

The female championship saw much larger entries forward, with Mr Donger taking time to go over each animal before making his final decision.

After much deliberation, he found his first-prizewinner in the form of Ballyvonnavan Ria from Declan Bell, Clarecastle, Co Clare. This November 2016-born heifer is sired by Manusmore Norris, a bull which has produced a number of prize-winners for Declan already this year.

Bernard Hunt also secured the reserve female calf championship with Sligo Rachel. Born the last day of December, Rachel was the youngest calf forward at the finals. She was sired by Beguin and out of homebred Sligo Jasmine.

Both bulls and heifers were then pitted against each other for the overall calf championship. Securing both the overall and reserve overall spots were the females. Declan Bell was awarded the overall championship, while Bernard Hunt took the reserve.

Peter Donger also took the helm for the judging of the normal Salers classes. He was faced with an impressive championship lineup by day’s end, which included the calf champion along with senior animal first-prizewinners.

Eventually he found his champion in the form of John Burke’s junior cow Manusmore Nikita. This three-year-old cow was sired by the well-known Rio and has competed successfully at a number of shows since she was a calf.

Claiming the reserve title was again John Burke, this time with his junior heifer winner Clew Bay Pretty, a Laois Nathan daughter.