High class pedigree animals turn out at Ballymena Show
Deerpark Shakira enjoyed a superlative showing career as a young pedigree Limousin heifer. And it seems that she is continuing where she left off as a young cow.
She entered the show ring at this year’s Ballymena Show with her October 2024 bull calf, Shakira Viking, at foot looking every bit the champion.
And so it turned out. Shakira won the Limousin breed championship in the morning, going on to secure the Ballymena 2025 Inter-Breed Beef championship later that afternoon. She was exhibited by Connor and Ryan Mulholland, from Antrim.
Noted Simmental and Limousin breeder, Cecil McIlwaine, judged the inter-breed beef classes at the event, adding: “The winning animal has got everything: great length, shape and overall beef character. And the fact that the young cow has a calf at foot adds to the appeal.”
But there were plenty of other high class pedigree animals taking part in the beef classes scheduled for Ballymena Show 2025.
Cecil McIlwaine again: “The Simmental champion is another exceptional young cow in the making. And the fact that she has twin calves at foot, again, adds to her appeal.
This year’s Ballymena Simmental championship was won by Ballinalare Farm Nikita, exhibited by Alan Wilson from Newry.
Meanwhile, the competition was equally strong in the dairy rings at Ballymena.
The Dairy Inter-Breed Championship was won by Stewartstown breeder, Jason Booth with his eye catching Holstein 4th calver: Beechview Hurricane Primrose EX93.
“She produced 12,500L of milk in her last lactation at 5.6% butterfat and 3.4% butterfat,” Jason explained.
“The cow calved for the fourth time last December and is due to calve again later in November. Primrose is home bred and continues to perform tremendously well.
Philip Jones, from Co Wexford, judged the dairy inter-breed classes at Ballymena Show 2025.
He described his Holstein champion as an excellent example of the Holstein breed, adding:
“The cow has tremendous dairy character. This includes a tremendous mammary system in tandem with tremendous locomotion.
“The overall quality of the dairy stock entered for this year’s show was exceptional show.”
An exceptional entry of 800 sheep took centre stage at Ballymena Show 2025. And the man with the immense task of judging them all was: Alan McCalymont, from Scotland.
At the end of a very long day’s keen competition, he selected a Charollais ewe from the flock of the Co Armagh breeder, Glenn Baird, as his Inter-Breed Champion.
McCalymont commented: “The ewe is a tremendous example of her breed. She looked an absolute picture in the ring.”
The past week has seen large numbers of farmers express their opposition to the latest Nutrient Action Plan (NAP) proposals recently published by Stormont farm minister, Andrew Muir.
Approximately 1,000 people turned out for an information event on this matter held at Greenmount College on Thursday past.
So, not surprisingly, the politics of all this was centre stage as farming families attending Ballymena Show 2025 discussed the key issue of the day over a cup of coffee.
Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) deputy president, John McLenaghan, was among them.
He said: “NAP is all about improving water quality. And farmers across Northern Ireland totally buy into this principle.
“In fact, they have already achieved significant improvements where this matter is concerned over recent years.
McLenagahn added; “However, the current NAP proposals are unworkable. More than that, Minister Muir failed to liaise properly with all the relevant stakeholder groups prior to the commencement of the current public consultation.
“This is a fundamentally flawed approach. What’s required now is for the minister to go back to the drawing board and develop a set of realistic NAP proposals with all the farming bodies and stakeholder groups.
“By taking this approach, it will be possible to come up with realistic solutions that everyone can agree on.”