Charolais Clean up in Beef cow Final
A province wide competition to find the Beef Cow of the Year was run off at the summer shows in Northern Ireland and was sponsored by Ulster Bank and the NI Shows Association. For the first time in the history of this competition all of the first three places were taken by the same exhibitor. Alan Clyde from Antrim took first and second place with his Charolais and third place with his Limousin.
Taking the NISA/Ulster Bank championship was Tullygarley Ukraine. a Doonally New daughter bred by John Currie.
Taking the reserve championship was the Mozart daughter,Halftown Uptowngirl. Cormac McKervey, Ulster Bank agri Manager thanked Michelle Gildernew, the Minsiter for Agriculture for coming along to present the awards and congratualted the Clyde family on their success. He said " Current returns from the beef sector have not been good and the message is that we must produce better quality stock. What we have witnessed in this competition today is supberb breeding stock." John McGrath, chairman of the NI Charolais Club added "This show season the Charolais breed has demonstrated to the commerical beef farmers what it has to offer. The breed has taken a number of Interbreed and commercial championships at the shows; we have had a wonderful turnout of young stock at the Dectomax final and crowned that at Enniskillen with the Suckler Cow Championship and reserve"