'What we dream of': Dunmanway Blue breeder clinches Balmoral breed championship
Celebrations: Daniel and Denise O'Donovan with their champion Belgian Blue Don Oreo taking a well earned break at the 2023 Balmoral Show.
It’s a long way to Tipperary, but an even longer one from West Cork to Balmoral Park.
But Dunmanway man Daniel O’Donovan and sister Denise will have good company for the journey home with their newly crowned Belgian Blue Champion, Don Oreo from the O’Donovan family’s Don Blues herd.
The farm also includes a pedigree Angus herd and a cross-bred suckler herd using Limousin-Blue cross.
The October 2020-born heifer by Imperial and out of Ballyconroy Daft won her class for two-year-old heifers before snagging the title of Champion female, Best exhibitor-bred female and Overall Champion Blue at this year’s show.
It’s a moment made even more special as it’s believed to mark the first time a southern animal has clinched the Balmoral Blue Championship.
The breed’s reserve championship was awarded to Rodgers Livestock, from Dromara, Co Down, with 13-month-old heifer Corrandulla Queen Red Gene ET.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Daniel O’Donovan, said winning the title was an “absolute dream”.
“The ultimate goal for any cattle breeder is to breed something to win the likes of this,” he said. “That’s the pinnacle for us. We put a lot of time and effort into it. We have thought about coming up to Balmoral for the last five or six years. We thought we had one good enough, and then Covid hit.
“All we’re doing here is feeding an addiction; we love showing,” he said. “This is the furthest we’ve been. But it’s nice to come up here.
“We go to the Highland Show in Scotland every year for a look, and we can get from Cork Airport to the show there in Scotland faster.”
Oreo’s full sister was the champion Belgian Blue at Tullamore in 2019, and her full brother was the All-Ireland Bull Champion in 2017. The heifer also clinched the title of All-Ireland breeding champion at Rathdowney Show last year.
But even with high hopes for her Northern debut, Daniel said: “She blew all our expectations. I was hoping she might be in the top two or three in the class, but to go on and win the whole thing was just phenomenal – it’s really what we dream of.”
Daniel’s father Tim founded the herd of pedigree herd of around ten Belgian Blues on the back of a foundation cow purchased from Mallow breeder Ellen O’Shea around 30 years ago.
Tim and Denise made the trek up north not just once but twice, realising they didn’t want to miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see their home-bred cow in the ring for the Interbreed Supreme Championship at Balmoral.
But as for the seven hour-drive, it might be a few more years before Daniel wants to repeat that – even with a championship title at stake.
The good news is that anyone wanting to see Oreo can keep an eye out for her closer to home at Dunmanway and Tullamore Shows.
