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Irish Beltex Sheep Breeders Club /

Open Day Success For Irish Beltex In Glenarm

The Irish Beltex Sheep Breeders Club held another very successful Open Day on Saturday 19th April 2008 at the idyllic setting on the farm of Glenarm breeders Thomas & Hester Palmer. Their Burnside flock has been winner of the Small Flock Competition for both years that the competition has been in existence, taking the overall Champion Flock title in 2006.

Club members, friends, and visitors from all over Ireland turned up throughout the day in the spring sunshine to watch the wool preparation and trimming demonstration by former club chairman, Hugh O’Neill. Discussions took place with George Gregg from Moores Animal Feeds on feeding regimes, and Ivan Porter from Osmonds on ‘The Year of the Sheep’ from pre-mating to weaning.

A very interesting presentation was given by Epidemiologist, Ignatius McKeown, from DARD on the topical subject of Bluetongue, the symptoms, and the effects both on livestock and trade of this approaching disease. Numerous questions were asked by concerned breeders interested in the local DARD strategy on Bluetongue and the purchase/use of the vaccine against the BTV8 strain which arrived in England from mainland Europe last autumn. Beltex breeders are only too aware of the disasterous consequences of BTV8 - their Belgian counterparts had their flocks decimated by countless deaths, and serious illness and suffering, in the summer of 2007, and breeders here are keen to prevent a repeat of this disease destroying their years of hard work and financial investment in breeding pedigree stock.

The highlight of the plentiful lunch was the ‘pig on the spit’, with an excellent spread of food and drinks for all in attendance. The day was rounded off with the usual competitions and a raffle. The joint winners of the Stock Judging competition were Alison McCrabbe, Raphoe and James Christie, Cloughmills.

The club is indebted to the Palmer Family for hosting the event and sponsoring the prizes for the Stock Judging competition.

Sincere thanks must also go to the following people:
the representatives from DARD, Moores Animal Feeds, Osmonds, Moores Animal Feeds, Broughshane; E.A. Bell Ltd, Ballymena; ABN Ltd, Lisburn; Donnelly Bros., Dungannon; Fane Valley, Banbridge; Sam Coleman, Glarryford; and Ivan Porter who provided sponsorship/prizes, Hugh O’Neill for his show preparation demonstration, Wade McCrabbe for his stock judging expertise, the committee members who provided the wonderful food and drink, and worked very hard to make the day such an outstanding success, everyone who donated prizes for the raffle and all those who bought raffle tickets