The Irish Hereford breed association hosted its premier spring sale in Tullamore on Saturday, with an increased demand for commercial buyers.

While a relatively small catalogue, not helped by a number of on-farm sales in advance of the premier, over half of the bulls sold made €3,000 or more.

This was helped greatly by Certified Irish Hereford Prime reimbursing buyers of bulls which made €3,000 or more with €250.

In total, 18 bulls sold from the 27 present to average €2,950. While this average is back slightly on the previous few years, clearance rate was well up, having sunk to 30% back in 2017.

Leading trade with a call of €4,200 was Kye Nando 881 from Padraig McGrath, Elphin, Co Roscommon. This July 2019-born bull is a son of stock bull Free Town Nevada, while the homebred dam is a daughter of Steil Gerard. With four stars on the terminal index, he was knocked down to Richard O’Keeffe.

Nigel Heatrick from Glaslough in Co Monaghan sold his bull Airhill Raffael for €4,000. Originally bred by John Johnston, this April 2019-born bull is a son of Cill Cormaic Napoleon and Airhill Junior.

Edwin Jones sold two bulls to average an impressive €3,750. Top of these was a call of €3,900 for Keenagh Pedro. This double five-star bull is a son of Keenagh L-Jay, with the dam’s pedigree containing Kilsunny Goliath and Churchill Storm.

Full report to follow in next week’s paper.

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