The inaugural All Breeds Cattle Show was held over Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February at The Royal Showground at Stoneleigh. Whilst I would have liked to have seen a larger entry I congratulate those English Guernsey Cattle Society members who entered and presented their cattle so well in spite of the difficult weather conditions. The quality of the cattle forward was a credit to you all. I should also like to thank our sponsors for the event; UK Sire Services and The English Guernsey Cattle Society.
The first day was exclusively for youngstock. Unfortunately, due to some competitors pulling out, there was only one animal forward, Guernsey maiden heifer, Eavesford Onward Molly by Jensgolden Sentry Onward, shown by Milly Fallows. This was a well grown heifer for 11 months, full of dairy character who paraded well on excellent legs and feet. She is an excellent prospect for the future and I look forward to seeing her with Milly in the Show Ring again.
The second day of the Show was dedicated to Cows and Heifers in Milk. The first class of the day was Heifer in Milk. I placed I and D Crouch’s Blacknor Tania by Sweet Symphony’s Cassidy in first place. She had excellent Dairy Character, very fine over the shoulder with a good Top line. She had tremendous width in the rump and rear udder attachment. I placed her above Colin Evans Hilcol Coriander who did not have quite the stature and dairyness of my first animal, but paraded very well on excellent legs and feet.
There was only one competitor in the Class for Guernsey Cow in Milk having had 2 or 3 calves, and this was Bickfield Rainbow 51 by Slindon Posies Ambionic owned by the Evans and Sales Partnership and shown by Neil Sales. She is a powerful second calver with the strength and cleanness of bone we come to expect from Ambionic daughters. She had particularly good fore and rear udder attachments.
The final class was for Guernsey Cows in Milk having had 4 or more calves. There were 3 good cows forward in this class. My winner in this class was I and D Crouch’s Luckley Sylvia 15 , who in spite of being 10 years old has still got what it takes to catch the eye, excellent stature and depth of body with her udder still above her hocks, in spite of her age and her yields, and excellent teat quality. Following very closely behind in second place was Colin Evan’s St Senara Adrienne by Trewarnevas Precious Lorry. She also had equally good body strength and chest width with excellent locomotion. However I felt she did not have quite the teat quality and placing of my first animal. I placed Eavesford Glacier Molly third, again a good animal but on the day she appeared a little stale in comparison with my previous two cows.
Finally in the Guernsey Championship, I had no hesitation in placing Bickfield Rainbow first. After much deliberation, I decided to place Luckley Sylvia 15 above the excellent heifer, Blacknor Tania, purely because she had withstood the test of time.
Once again my congratulations to all the competitors for the preparation of their animals in rather inclement weather and parading their cattle so well in rather cramped conditions. My thanks to Holstein UK for their organisation of a Show that can only go from strength to strength.
