Clogher Show tops remarkable year for Crawford Brothers
The performances notched up by the elite Limousin cow, Rathkeeland Tendresse, during the 2026 agricultural showing season will live long in the memory.
Accompanied at all times by her equally impressive heifer calf at foot, she won a total of eight inter-breed championships, culminating with her much deserved victory at Clogher Show 2026.
The event also saw her winning the overall Cattle Championship of the show.
Judges assessing the cow over the past number of weeks were unanimous in pointing to her tremendous breed character, ring presence and poise.
And, of course the fact that she is a proven breeding cow just adds so much more to her potential for the future.
Tendresse was bred and exhibited by Crawford Brothers, who hail from Maguiresbridge in Co Fermanagh.
Stephen Crawford commented: “We have had a tremendous showing season. It’s an absolute credit to the cow that she has been able to maintain such tremendous condition over so many weeks.
“It’s a case now of building for the future.”
Clogher valley Show is rightly regarded as a livestock highlight of the showing year in Northern Ireland. It attracts a tremendous turnout of beef and dairy cattle. Large numbers of sheep also compete at the event. And 2026 was no different in this regard.
However, one of the most significant dimensions of the event over recent years has been the tremendous turnout of young handlers across all the livestock competition sections.
This was especially the case in the sheep rings, where, at one stage, the organisers were on the point of bringing an extra competition ring into use.
All of this bodes well for the future of pedigree livestock breeding in Northern Ireland.
The Holstein and Inter-Breed dairy championships at Clogher 2026 were won by Alan and Leanne Paul from Maghera with their second calver: Slatabogie Lambda Alysia.
According to the dairy inter-breed judge, Mark Henry, his champion was a tremendous excellent example of the Holstein breed.
He further explained: “The final class featured a number of excellent daisy cows. But I felt the champion just had that little bit of extra show presence.”
Alysia had previously notched up the dairy inter-breed championship at Omagh Show 2026. She is due to calve for the third time at the end of October.
Also worthy of note was the tremendous performances achieved by Co Tyrone Ayrshire breeder, Stewart Baxter at Clogher Show 2026. He won the Coloured Breed Championship and went on to secure the Dairy Inter-Breed reserve at the event with an excellent young cow.
Approximately 450 sheep took part in Clogher Show 2026. Judging continued throughout the day.
One of the most exciting classes of the day was the native Breeds’ Championship, won by Jason Watson, owner of the Bannview flock, with a truly eye catching Suffolk ewe.
Neil Richardson, from Buxton in Derbyshire, judged the class. He described the shearling as a truly outstanding sheep with tremendous breeding potential, adding: “The quality of the sheep coming into the competition rings throughout the day was exceptionally high.”