A prestigious award-winning animal, Eedy Doorman Fame, has just become Ireland's highest classified cow.

The Co. Cork cow, who stems from the Helen family's Eedy herd, was awarded the exceptional classification score of EX97 max.

She is the first cow to achieve this prestigious status in over 30 years, with the only other EX97 cow in Ireland being Moralta Inspiration Fame, who is Eedy Doorman Fame's fifth dam.

However, Moralta Inspiration Fame was a Canadian-bred cow classified by Holstein UK in the 1990s.

That means Eedy Doorman Fame is Ireland's first ever home-bred EX97, as well as the first ever EX97 classification under the Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA), which is an historic milestone in Irish Holstein breeding.

IHFA chief executive, Laurence Feeney described the classification as a "truly remarkable achievement".

He said: "Literally millions of cows have being born in those 30 years, so the odds of this are phenomenal."

Eedy Doorman Fame

Eedy Doorman Fame was born out of Clonpaddin Bk Fame ET (EX94) on August 18, 2019. She was sired by Val-Bisson Doorman (EX90).

As of May 2026, she has an Economic Breeding Index (EBI) of €-141, with a milk sub-index of €32 and a fertility sub-index of €-122.

Her milk traits are broken down into 417kg of milk at 8.29kg of fat and 8.68kg of protein.

In her fourth lactation, she produced 12,087kg of milk at 4.6% fat (555kg) and 3.48% protein (421kg), all while maintaining an average somatic cell count (SCC) of 46,000 cells/ml.

Her excellence is backed up by more than just paper, as she has claimed the Supreme Champion title at the National Dairy Show in Millstreet not once, but twice.

Judges sway towards Eedy Doorman Fame's 'outstanding conformation', which can also be seen through her awards for best udder.

Robert Helen told Agriland how the herd was only registered in 1993 after he took over from his uncle.

He started out with 18 cows during a period of milk quotas, and bought in a single pedigree Holstein cow, which more than half of the Eedy herd stems from today.

He said that they have built it up over the last 30-35 years, stating that "it is possible for anyone to do it".

Irish gentics

The IHFA described the classification as a landmark achievement which showcases the world-class quality of Irish Holstein genetics.

And it is not the first milestone in Irish genetics this year either; earlier in the year the top 75 bulls on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Dairy Active Bull List were all Irish-bred for the first time in the programme's history.

Another milestone which shows just how far Irish breeding has come in the last number of years.

Eedy Doorman Fame is already known worldwide, as are many other Irish show cows and sires, helping to place Ireland on the map as a country of strong home-bred dairy genetics.