The renowned Stirling bull sales take place this week, with the Simmental breed going under the hammer on Monday 19 February. Trade was tough for senior and intermediate bulls, but there was a noticeable lift when the junior classes entered the ring.

Leading trade with a call of 24,000gns was the previous day's reserve junior champion Islavale Heston from Stewart Stronach. This September 2016-born bull was sired by Ranfurly Confederate and out of homebred Islavale Fran. After back and forth bidding, the sale leader was knocked down to Richard McCulloch.

This wasn’t Mr Stronach's only success. Later in the day, he also claimed the second-top price for Islavale Harvest. This bull was again sired by Ranfurly Confederate, this time out of a Woodhall Walker-bred dam. Having caught a number of people’s eyes, he was eventually secured with a 16,000gns bid from Kilbride Farm Simmentals.

Clearance remained high at 82%, but average took a hit of nearly £600 to settle at £5,477.

Read this week's Irish Farmers Journal for a full report.