All Star Award 2023 – Bawnmore Pepper Almeric EX90 Max, bred by John & Bryan O’Connor, Bawnmore Herd, Kanturk, Co. Cork

 John & Bryan O’ Connor’s BAWNMORE PEPPER ALMERIC EX90 (max score) wins the “Showing Oscar of the Year”. 

Bawnmore Pepper Almeric EX bred and owned by brothers John & Bryan O’ Connor, Kanturk Co. Cork is the recipient of the IHFA All Star Award for 2023. Her credentials in terms of success and achievements in National shows last year includes; 

• Supreme Champion Tullamore National Livestock Show 

• Reserve Champion & Exhibitor bred Champion, Diageo Baileys All Ireland Championship 

Bryan and John were presented with the award at a special Pedigree Cattle Breeders Council of Ireland (PCBCOI) function held in the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise on Sunday February 11th last. Fourteen breed societies were represented, each with a nominated recipient as the “All Star” of their respective breed. Bryan and John describe the function as “Thoroughly enjoyable, akin to the Oscars ceremony in terms of the best of the best of all breeds and it is a fitting modern iteration of the RDS Champion of Champions”. 

2023 was a remarkable year of achievements for Bawnmore Pepper Almeric. Having achieved a Classification score of VG88 2-Year-Old she then went on to achieve the maximum Classification score possible of EX90 as a second-calver on October 4th. 

She also won Senior Champion & All Ireland Junior Cow Champion of Charleville Show 2023. She won Champion All Ireland 3-Year-Old 2022 & joint Champion 4-Year Old 2023 in the IHFA All Ireland awards. 

She has a projected 2nd lactation yield (305 d) of 10,274 kgs milk, 717 kgs milk solids. 

Bryan comments “From a young age it was always obvious that she was something special. Even as a yearling heifer she had that X factor”. 

In a remarkable mirror-image double achievement by both daughter and Dam, both she and her mother Clongowes Sid Almeric 2 EX95 4E exhibited by the O’Connor family, won Champion Tullamore National Livestock Show and Senior Champion & All Ireland Junior Cow Champion of Charleville Show respectively, seven years apart with her Dam achieving this National success in 2016. Bryan and John are very pleased with the performance of her maternal sister Bawnmore Massey Almeric EX94 3E in the herd. 

The Clongowes herd connection & Pat Fanning 

Bryan and John are fulsome in their praise of Pat Fanning, former manager of the Clongowes herd for his role and foresight in developing the Almeric cow family. John states “In fairness to Pat, he really developed the family, he always used the top sires of the time in a strategic way in every generation. Credit to him, he really got the show on the road”. Testament to their own innate sharp eye for quality breeding, no doubt inherited from their late father Brian Senior who was a noted stockman, Bryan and John picked out her mother Clongowes Sid Almeric 2 as their weanling of choice when making a purchase at the youngstock dispersal sale of the Clongowes herd in Co. Kildare in 2013. Bryan comments “In my view she was the standout weanling in the sale. I had been really impressed by her Shottle mother, her udder quality was something else. The sire stack in her pedigree of Sid x EX Shottle x EX Goldwyn was also appealing”. 

Pepper’s Showing Achievements and the talents of Paul Murphy 

Bryan states “Her maiden outing to a show was Emerald Expo in 2022. It was a very successful show where she won 1st Heifer in milk, and she also won Intermediate Champion. She was never haltered prior to preparing for Expo. She has a lovely unassuming nature, very quiet disposition however she just did not like the halter at all initially. It is without doubt 

thanks to Paul Murphy for his skills that we managed to get her trained. Paul with his patience and perseverance, gained her confidence over time”. John concurs; “Paul has been the one and only on the halter leading her in the ring for all the shows. Paul is gifted, he is simply brilliant, so switched on, a super operator. If we are talking in terms of Pepper Almeric being an Oscar winner, then in our eyes Paul is also an Oscar winner for his incredible supporting role”. 

All Star Award 2022 – Sterndale Colt Rae ET EX93 3E, bred by Liam & Sandra Murphy, Evergreen Herd, Bagnelstown, Co. Carlow

All Star Award 2021 

All Star Award 2020 

All Star Award 2019 – Lisnalty Megasire Rituel EX90 2nd lactation, bred by Paul Hannan & family, Lisnalty herd, Friarstown, Crecora Co. Limerick.

 

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Irish Holstein Friesian Association winners John and Bryan O’Connor from Kanturk, Co. Cork are presented with their award by Richard Hamilton and IFA president Francie Gorman at the Irish Pedigree Cattle Breeders awards in Portlaoise. Picture: Alf Harvey.
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