One person who has been at the helm of the Carrick Winter Fair since the beginning is secretary of the Midland and Western Livestock Improvement Society, Lourda McGowan. The Mohill native has overseen every Winter Fair since 2005 and has watched it grow into the iconic event it is today. This year, Lourda will oversee operations once again, where entries have exceeded expectations – with another jam-packed catalogue across two weekends.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, Lourda said: “The Carrick Winter Fair has grown from strength to strength over the past 20 years. It first commenced under the imitative of Martin O’Connor, the society’s president in 2005, after the Commercial Exhibitors Society moved its Fatstock Show and Sales to alternative venues throughout the country.”

Since then, the event has been split into two weekends, because of the growing number of exhibitors, cattle and spectators flocking to the event. Thomas Abbott, the current president of the society said: “The executive committee was delighted to see Martin O’Connor honoured this year at the FBD National Hall of Fame Awards for his work in establishing the Carrick Winter Fair.”

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Sponsors

Commenting on this year’s event, Lourda said: “This year the society has gone the route of a combined catalogue for the two weekends, and we wish to thank and congratulate the team involved in compiling this catalogue – which also lists all the society’s generous sponsors.” Thomas Abbott said: “The hosting of the Carrick Winter Fair would not be possible without our loyal and generous sponsors and in expressing the society’s gratitude to them all, we hope our patrons will retain their information from the catalogue and support our sponsors, where possible, going forward.”

Lourda believes Carrick’s central location is a massive advantage for attracting northern customers.

“Given Carrick-on-Shannon’s central location and its convenience to Northern Ireland, the Carrick Winter Fair has become one of the major commercial livestock events in the country and this year, the society is delighted to welcome exhibitors from 23 of the 26 counties over the two weekends.”

Judging times

On Monday 17 November, the show and sale of weanling bulls and senior cattle will get proceedings under way at the showgrounds. Judging will commence at 9am, featuring 55 heifers, 45 breeding heifers, 12 bullocks, 10 butchers’ heifers and 50 weanling bulls, before the sale starts at 12.30pm.

The second part of the event will be the show of weanling heifers on Sunday 23 November, followed by the sale of the 360 cattle entered the following day, Monday 24 November.

On Sunday 23 November, judging commences at 11am with the young stockperson competitions, which is divided into two categories.

This will be followed by the judging of the 360 weanling heifers across two rings. Commenting on the classes, Lourda said: “There are of course the usual popular breeds of Charolais, Limousin and Belgian Blue to be judged, but there are entries in the classes for Angus, Hereford, Simmental, Shorthorn, Parthenaise and Blonde D’Aquitaine weanlings. The largest class listed in the catalogue is the Limousin heifer 440kg and under, with 86 entries.”

On Monday 24 November, the sale of weanling heifers will begin in catalogue order at 10am. Bidding both weekends will be ringside and online through the MartBids platform. Prospective online buyers are asked to register online with MartBids prior to both events.

AI companies’ classes

Such is the spectacle of the Carrick Winter Fair, this year three artificial insemination (AI) companies are hosting their own competitions for exhibitors with progeny of their bulls.

These attractive competitions are the €2,000 Dovea Genetics-sired calf Bonanza, the Elite Pedigree Genetics commercial calf championship and the €2,500 Progressive Genetics and Muster Bovine future champions calf extravaganza. Commenting on this, Lourda said: “The society is delighted to co-operate with these companies to showcase the best of their bulls’ progeny.”

There is no doubt that the Carrick Winter Fair has become the largest spectacle of commercial show cattle in Europe and possibly across the world. It brings exhibitors, buyers and spectators from all over Ireland, the UK and Europe to see the very best of commercial livestock in Ireland. In recent years, records have been broken year on year, with €30,000 paid in 2024 for a heifer calf from Derrick Forde.

Not only is the winter fair a great showcase of cattle, it also has a wonderful social aspect to it, something you will not find anywhere else. Lourda added: “This year visitors to Carrick town can... say that they were in Ireland’s tidiest town, an award bestowed on Carrick Tidy Towns Committee recently.

“The society congratulates the great team involved and asks all our patrons to help keep Carrick tidy. We look forward to welcoming everyone to the best showcase of quality commercial cattle over the next two weekends.”