Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it has being an almost non-existent spring for the Irish Hereford cattle society.

With the society office having to close and most of the scheduled bull sales cancelled, all hope rested on the sale in Kilmallock last Thursday.

While bulls were stalled for the event with prospective purchasers allowed allocated viewing times beforehand, these viewings failed to turn into bids. Such was the case that only 30% of the bulls forward found new homes.

Speaking after the event, a spokesperson for the Irish Hereford society said: “Not an ideal scenario for a spring sale but a sign of the times. Some people were finding the technology hard to get to grips with and the communication process is much harder between the mart and the seller/buyer when all has to take place remotely and via several phone calls in place of physically going into the office to do business. Onwards and upwards and hopefully all those that did purchase will have good luck with their bulls.”

Highlight

The highlight of the sale was when Phil and Catherine Smyth from Co Meath sold their bull Ardmulchan Omagh for the top price of €2,400. This two-year-old bull is a son of the UK bred bull Church Preen Galileo while the homebred dam was sired by Westwood Uplifter. This bull carried three stars on carcase weight with a calving figure of just 1.5% on beef cows.

Securing the second top price of €1,900 was Ryemountpoll 1 Knight from Dermot Kelly, Co Kerry. Sired by NCBC bull Solpoll 1 Handsome, the September 2018-born bull is out of a homebred horned cow by Dorepoll 1 93N Translantic. Genotyped four-star replacement and terminal, he carries a calving figure of 3%.

Overall the 30% of bulls which sold averaged €1,800.