Averages: Seven bulls, €3150; 45 females, €3898. Overall, 52 lots, €3797.

A new Irish sale record of €8400 for a Hereford bull was achieved at the inaugural Goulding Opportunities sale held by the Gouldingpoll and Intelagri herds at Roscrea Mart, Co Tipperary.

In all, 52 lots of pedigree Hereford cattle went through the ring to produce a 93% clearance, with several heading across the Irish Sea to join UK herds.

Topping the sale at €8400 was the 18-month-old Gouldingpoll Stockman, a bull lying in the top 1% of the Irish breed. A son of Gouldingpoll 1 Robust, out of the Danish-bred Moeskaer Keepsake 1336, he sold to Cogent Breeding UK to join other Gouldingpoll-bred herd mates at the stud.

Females cleared at 98% with three heifers selling at €8085 each – the highest price paid for a Hereford female at an Irish public auction – to include full sisters Gouldingpoll 1 Duchess 591 and Gouldingpoll 1 Darling Duchess 986, selling to Kevin McOscar, Cookstown, Co Tyrone. These two young females were born on the same day and are by Normanton 1 Laertes and bred from Gouldingpoll 1 Duchess 591, the 2014 Irish National Show female champion. The other in the trio at this price was Gouldingpoll 1 Kashmir 1021, which sold to to DRA Fabb, Warboys, Cambridgeshire.

Next at €7455 was Gouldingpoll 1 Lucy 981, a maternal sibling to Gouldingpoll 1 Moonshine, out of Dendor 1 Kohinoor. She sold to the Netherhall herd of David and Maggie Kelly, Kirby Lonsdale, Cumbria.

Also heading to the North of England, but this time to reside at the Coley herd of Heather Whittaker, Halifax, Yorkshire, was the 18-month-old Gouldingpoll 1 Duchess 916, which realised €6195. Sired by Gouldingpoll 1 Robust, this heifer is out of Duchess 671.

A daughter of Panmure 1 Henry, Gouldingpoll 1 Pebbles 888 made €6195 and joins William Ryan’s Woodpark herd, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Heifers from Roy Beattie’s Intelagri herd also met a trade, selling to €4725 for Intelagri 1 Sky Lucy, a daughter of the 11,000gns Sky High 1 Lancome Lucy purchased by Alfred Sweetman, Cashel, Co Tipperary.

Auctioneer: Dennis Barrett