The Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) held a field event at Jim Cosgrave’s farm on Friday evening. The event, held in Newcastle, Enfield, Co Meath, was a DAFM-approved Knowledge Transfer beef event and included presentations from Stephen Conroy, ICBF, on €urostar indexes and the Beef Data and Genomics Programme, Teagasc’s Adam Woods, who discussed two-year old calving and Arthur Bredin, Progressive Genetics, who gave tips on sire and heifer/cow selection.

Pedigree beef herd

A pedigree Luing beef herd imported by the Cosgraves from Scotland was a strong attraction and, combined with a sale of four- and five-star SIM/Luing first-calf heifers and maiden heifers, helped attract a large attendance. The sale was conducted by livestock auctioneer Eamonn Gaffney from Cavan. It included eight SIM/Luing heifers which calved at 24 months of age and were marketed as AI’d again but not scanned in-calf or announced when they were next due to calf. All pairs were of good quality, with cows in good body condition and calves aged from about three to four months of age. Seven lots sold from €2,000 to €2,100, with one lot sold for €1,920.

Maiden heifers

The entry of maiden heifers included four homebred 2015-born SIM/Luing heifers, one 26-month SIM/Luing heifer which lost her calf this spring and five 2014-born heifers. The 2015-born SIM/Luing heifers sold from €1,020 to €1,110, a good May 2014-born Hereford heifer sold for €1,100 while the Angus heifers met a mixed trade with some sold and unsold from €1,100 to €1,200.

More details from the walk and presentations will be published on www.farmersjournal.ie in the coming days.