“Ballymote is the place to go if you are looking for quality breeding heifers”.
One of the reasons Barry has consistently returned to Ballymote for the last nine years is down to the way the sale is run; the heifers must be born in or at least 6 months in the seller’s herd. The heifers are pre inspected for quality, breeding soundness and correctness.
Barry looks for a good Simmental heifer with shape, “not too extreme, good size, little bit of age I don’t like having them too young”. Barry likes to calve his heifers at 30 to 36 months.
through the years with good stars coming as a bonus. Barry found that even though there has
been a considerable rise in demand for high stars that the stock sold through Ballymote have retained their quality regardless.
Barry likes Simmental and finds that “they make great mothers with lots of milk, lively calves and most importantly they are a low input cow – 95% of the heifers I put in calf here will calve down themselves, with the calf up and sucking in no time”.
Saturday October 8th at Ballymote Mart. Organised by the Western Simmental Club entry
numbers this year are as follows: 67 Incalf, 95 Maiden & 15 weanlings.
A catalogue of all entries will be available here on www.irishsimmental.com prior to the sale.
Photos courtesy of Allyssha Moore of A Moore Media