Open Day held at Blessington Mart
The Society recently organised an open day at Blessington Mart for new breeders to learn about trimming Suffolks for shows. Among the attendees on the day were Sam Ritchie of Strabane Mills who delivered a talk on the importance of using the correct animal feed at the appropriate stage of development and Leo Forkin of Mayo Animal Healthcare who provided a very informative talk on various aspects of general animal husbandry.
We were delighted to welcome Ian Donald of Donbraid Livestock to demonstrate the skills required for successful sheep dressing. Ian, one of the top sheep dressers in Ireland and the UK, captivated the audience with his expertise while also answering numerous questions from the floor about all aspects of sheep dressing.
The event also featured a stock judging competition on the day where there were two categories to be judged – Shearling Ewes and a Ewe Lamb class.
Mayo Animal Healthcare generously sponsored the U21 judging while Strabane Mills sponsored the over 21 category.
The results were as follows:
U21s 1st Evan Hopkins
2nd Aaron Patton
3rd Ben Lynch
Over 21s 1st Sean Heraty
2nd Aidan Carney
3rd Beverly McBride
With over 40 breeders in attendance on the day, feedback was overwhelmingly positive. It was a fantastic day of learning and an excellent opportunity to socialise with fellow breeders while enjoying some light refreshments.
The Society extends our gratitude to Ian Donald, and our sponsors, Leo Forkin and Sam Ritchie for their contributions to the success of the event. We would also like to thank Blessington Mart for the use of their premises. Finally we would like to thank Breeders Niall Cassidy, for his contributions to the event and John Gahan and Philip Lynch for providing the sheep for the trimming and stock judging.
Our next event will be an Open Day to be held on the farm of Sean O’Connor and his wife, Dr Carina Mederle (Islandmore Suffolks) on July 9th from 6.30 to 9pm.
