Our Pure Friesian February photo competition is over and we're thrilled with the illustrations of this great breed and the interest from our club, breeders and farmers.
The overall winner of the competition was Eamon Corcoran, The Rower, Co. Kilkenny. Eamon's photo won week two, so scroll down to see his line up of heifers.
Congratulations Eamon!
Thank you to all our entrants over the month, and meet the newest winner, Sean Keenan of Co. Laois.
WEEK FOUR - WINNER - Sean Keenan, Co Laois.
New arrival
Our fourth winner was Sean Keenan from Co. Laois. His lovely picture of a smashing cow with her new calf illustrates the quality of the calf. Sean is married to Marie and they have four children. They took over their farm in 2008 with 28 cows and milk 110 now, enabled through a few land purchases and land reclamation. Sean has been using Friesian for seven or eight year. The herd sent 480kg MS last year. Males are reared to beef and Sean has a few sucklers for excitement. Bulls used include PZZ, KKG, FR2430, FR4425, FR2276, FR4079, FR7035, S3532 and on heifers OZG, FCM, FR2030, FR6808 and FR2306.
A €75 shopping voucher is on its way to Sean.
WEEK THREE - WINNER - Tom Tynan, Muckalee, Co. Kilkenny.
Onwards and upwards
Tom farms with his fiancé Louise and their three daughters. The picture includes the cows at the rear Firoda CZZ Twink (left) and Kennedy KJY Ash (right). The dog is Bailey.
Tom started milking in 2016 with the herd's foundation cows coming from: Ballady Herd, Raheenarran Herd, Kennedy Herd and Firoda Herd. Their Coshire Herd has 45 cows producing 510kg/ms sold in 2021. Sires used on cows in recent years include Fr2276, TIH, KJY, FR6808, JRB, KKG. On the heifers Tom uses FR2306, FR2030, FCM.
Tom sells bull calves with exception of keeping a small handful bull calves to sell for breeding.
The €75 shopping voucher is on its way to Tom, Louise & the girls, and they are in with a chance of a further €100 voucher and the honour of having this image selected as the main picture on our website.
WEEK TWO - WINNER - Eamon Corcoran, The Rower, Co. Kilkenny
What a line up!
Eamon is farming in The Rower Co. Kilkenny, milking 80 British Friesian cows. He finishes all calves to beef and purchases some calves also. Herd production for 2021 was 503 kgMS sold, 533 produced. Eamon tells us that the heifers in the picture were all sired by FR2030 (Firoda Centurion, bred by Peadar Healy of Firoda Herd, see here for more information on that herd) except for one sired by SHK.
Eamon wins a €75 shopping voucher and is in with a chance of a further €100 voucher if his picture is chosen as the new main picture on this website!
WEEK ONE - WINNER - Aine O'Keeffe, Co. Cork
A splash of colour
Week one of Pure Friesian February saw some lovely entries and lots of interest on our social media channels, helping to promote this beautiful and useful breed.
The judges chose this picture by Aine O'Keeffe as the winner of this week's €75 shopping voucher.
When we contacted Aine, she gave us a bit of background on her herd, Clover Herd from Co. Cork. "We won the highest protein % award last year in the Spring B category of the Cork Holstein Friesian club. The two heifers are both out of a 91% British Friesian Launcher, stock bull. They are both from high milk solid producing dams. The black Friesian heifer is 87.5% FR and the red heifer is 75% FR. The herd averaged 6,717 kg at 4.24 fat and 3.79 protein for 2021."
Aine is now in the running for the overall prize of having her heifers as the main picture on the Irish Pure Friesian Club website, and an additional €100 shopping voucher - no doubt a well deserved treat after a busy spring!
WEEK THREE HAS STARTED!!!
Send your pictures by WhatsApp to 086 8552977 or by email to irishpurefriesiancommittee@gmail.com
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