Limerick Clare

Club Committee 2020

Club Notes – Winter 2019

National Herds Competition
The national open day was held on a fine summers day on the 27th June at the Radney herd. Once again herds from the club were well represented in the national herds competition. Aidan and Sally-Ann Frawley’s Ballytigue herd was second in the over 80 cow section. This herd is establishing itself well in this section in recent years. Mike and Liz McNamara’s Barna herd near Newtownshandrum won the judge’s recognition award. Mike Gould the judge commented on the progress that the McNamara’s were making with their herd and mentioned the help along the way from daughters Rachael and Emma. Well done to the Frawley and McNamara families and thanks to everyone who represented the club on the day in the stock judging competition.

EHRC Judge’s Workshop at Ballytigue
This year the IHFA held the European Holstein and Red Holstein Confederation judges conference. 39 judges from across Europe descended on Aidan and Sally-Ann Frawley’s Ballytigue herd near Bruree in July. The judges weren’t disappointed with what they saw with 42 top quality Holsteins to place throughout the day. The judges were full of praise for the effort that was put in on the day and commented on how the cattle were turned out to as high a standard as you would see at any show, testament to Stephen McLoughlin and his team.

A huge effort went into the event by club members in the weeks preceding the event. A strong turnout of club members was present at Frawley’s farm each week to help halter train the 42 animals. These summer evenings were very enjoyable, spent having a chat and walking the cattle. Thanks to the Frawley family for the catering for club members after these evenings. Our thanks to everyone who helped out, the good work put in by everyone was evident on the day as the cows and young stock paraded very well.

Well done to Aidan and Sally-Ann and family for hosting an outstanding event, the farm looked immaculate on the day and the livestock was outstanding. Indeed the champion and reserve champion selected on the day were Ballytigue Gold Chip Penny EX93 and Ballytigue Gold Chip Shower EX 94 and both cows went to the Baileys in Virginia in August. Shower finished reserve champion and Penny was fourth, a great result for the herds first time at the Baileys. Congratulations from everyone in the club. We’ll look forward to next year and the IHFA national open day and we know from this summer that there will be plenty of support from the club.

Club Tour
This year the club tour went to the Keenan factory in Borris and Mulhall’s Danville herd near Kilkenny city. Keenan’s looked after us well and firstly gave us a run down of the company history and told of how the link with Alltech came about. After this we had a tour of the factory which from an engineering point of view was very interesting. We saw how their diet feeders were made from start to finish and how they can switch to making different models very easily. Many club members on the tour use their diet feeders and the in Touch PACE technology so it was very interesting to get behind the scenes of this famous Irish brand.

Jim Mulhall gave us a great insight to his farm having recently switched to robotic milking. A considerable amount of investment took place on this farm in recent times. Jim gave us an overview of the farm, the reasons that he decided on robotic milking and spoke to us on how the start up on the robots went. He is milking with 3 A5 Lely robots and also has a collector 120 robotic scraper. Willie Walsh and Catherine Heffernan from Lely were present and ran through the equipment that was on the farm. Catherine spoke to us in detail on the T4C farm management software and how to get the most out of the reports from the robots. On the day Mike McNamara spoke really well in thanking everyone on behalf of the club.

We had a pit stop in Cahir on the way home for some light refreshments and then ended up back in Charleville for some not so light refreshments! It was a very enjoyable day and thanks to all at Keenan’s and Lely. A special thanks to the Mulhall family for hosting us on the day.

National Dairy Show
Congratulations to the Hannan and McNamara families on winning champion and reserve at the national dairy show. Paul Hannan’s cow Lisnalty Megasire Rituel won the senior 3 year old class and went on to win the championship on the day as well as the exhibitor bred award. Ml. & E McNamara’s Woodmarsh Cancun Lyme 2 won the 5 year old class and was reserve champion on the day. Donal Neville’s Emerald Perseus Fran also won her heifer class with John Curtin’s Rosstemple Doorman Ysabel taking second place. Well done to all club members who exhibited at the national dairy show.

Eoin Horgan