The annual Promise of Protein sale of the Leagh and Lynbrook herds took place in Carnaross Mart, Co Meath, last week, with a near 100% clearance. The sale saw a total of 22 lots sold through the ring to average €2,180, with reports of further sales outside the ring afterwards.

Leading the sale with a price of €4,100 was a consignment from Bryan and John O’Connor’s Bawnmore herd. Their October 2017-born Bawnmore K R Cosmo quickly shot to €3,000, before another rush of bids pushed her past the €4,000 mark. Sired by Plain-Knoll King Royal, the stylish potential 10th generation VG/EX heifer is out of one of the herd’s best cows, RR Supershot Crimson. This young cow was purchased by the outfit for €11,500 at the Tulip sale in 2015 and gave nearly 10,000kg in her first lactation.

This breeding has performed very well around the world, with two full brothers to the dam secured as high genomic bulls for Cogent AI and a full-sister selling for €36,000 at the German Masters sale.

Sold at a bid of €3,740 was the six-month-old Leagh Solomon Maui 2 ET from Tim Fitzmaurice. This potential fourth-generation EX-classified cow was reserve junior champion at the Kingdom Fair last month and is from a long line of show-winning stock. A full-sister to this young heifer was sold at this sale in 2017 for €4,200 and went on to claim the junior championship at the RUAS winter fair just last December. Sired by Walnutlawn Solomon, dam Leagh Observer Maui ET was champion at Kerry YMA calf show and produced a massive 12,500kg in her third lactation.

One of the highlights of this year’s sale was the offering of a homozygous polled heifer for the first time in Ireland. Leagh Powerball Pledge had the attention of many, obtaining a number of bids before the hammer finally fell at €3,100.

The December 2017-born heifer sold scanned with a female pregnancy to Cherry-Lily Zip Luster, one of the highest genomically-tested polled bulls in the US. Sired by View-Home Powerball, the rising 17-month-old heifer is out of homebred Leagh Labl Pledge, which produced 10,175kg in her last lactation of 3.55% protein.

Bawnmore Titan Redrose, one of the youngest heifers forward, secured a bid of €2,800. This three-month-old calf is out of the potential ninth-generation EX-classified cow Bawnmore Mogul Redrose, who has a projected lactation of over 8,500kg.