The Irish Belgian Blue Cattle Society held its annual autumn winter sale this weekend at GVM’s Tullamore mart.

Despite wintry conditions, increased crowds made their way to the central location.

That said, activity ringside was minimal, with most of the evening's trading taking place outside the ring.

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A total of seven of the 10 lots sold on the night were done so after passing through the sales ring. However, buyers had a price they would pay, generally in the region of €3,200 to €4,000.

Exceptions

There were a few exceptions to this, most notably Donegal native Patrick O’Brien’s Mill King, which sold for €5,750. This bull was earlier in the evening awarded the reserve overall champion male under judge Anthony O’Connor.

This bull is no stranger to the show ring, having stood all-Ireland champion at Clonaslee Show in August.

This October 2016-born bull is sired by Visconte De Saint Fontaine and his dam is Castletrench Delia ET, a Tullamore National Show Champion during her show career.

Patrick O’Brien’s brother Sean also had a successful evening in the show ring, claiming the premier show and sales male championship. King, a September 2016-born bull sired off Dovea AI’s Boherard Cantona, failed to meet his reserve on the night.

Female champion

Claiming the female championship and the top female price of the night was Tommy Fitzgerald’s Heatherview Karen Et.

This stylish two-year-old heifer met trade of €3,600. Sired by Solway View Dynamite, Karen is out of a Dafydd bred dam from the herd’s original cow family.

The reserve female championship went the way of the Stanley family from Cork with Brownview Lollypop. This January 2017 norm heifer is out of Mannequin, while the dam is Harrison sired Ballinakill Holly Et, a former Tullamore champion. This stylish black heifer heads north for the price of €2,750.

Overall bulls averaged at €4,025, up significantly on the year with heifers coming in at just shy of €2,750.