Page 56 - Shorthorn Magazine

JUDGE: THOMAS MOSCROP
North Midlands Herd Competition Report
Well, I set off from sunny Cumbria on the Monday morning heading South and I managed to control my panic attacks as I headed over Shap and travelled more than 30 miles from Carlisle!
My first stop was David Wainwrights Boothdale herd, my trusty sat nav sent me to Wales, this was a first
for me as I’ve never been to Wales, then promptly sent me back out
of Wales! Anyways on navigating what I thought was the narrowest country roads I’ve ever been on I was greeted by David and shown around some very functional hard working cows although not big numbers of shorthorns which milk alongside
the main Holstein herd to me they stood out and held their own. I
saw a particularly good batch of heifers by Churchroyd Pharaoh, as the temperature rose into the low 30s we had some refreshments and
I headed off on the search for Dave Madeley’s Diamat cows. Dave works on a fairly new unit where the cows are milked through robots and his cows are run alongside his bosses Holsteins. They looked very content and in good fettle. Here a very nice second calved cow Daimat Tulip 2nd by Cotonhall Jagged Edge caught my eye, she just oozed dairyness, power and had a great open rib.
Day two started with a trip to Rob Kites Cotonhall herd, where we browsed through some amazing
very well looked after calves and young stock. Rob really makes a fantastic job of his calves getting them off to what couldn’t be a
better start, very impressive. We then moved into the milking herd where I saw some excellent cows by Ballytrain Bullseye and Blackwood Park Butternut. His cows were very good on their feet and legs and as we walked through, they never looked up from enjoying their pasture, very content milky cows. Next stop was
to a new young fellow to the breed in Charlie Thomason’s Norville herd, only small in numbers as he’s just started purchasing shorthorns but the quality of what he has purchased had put him in a great position to
go on and breed some excellent shorthorns going forward. Catching my eye here were the Meg family coming from the Burbrook herd with the matriarch Burbrook Jinnys Meg standing proud in very impressive starter herd. On leaving Charlie’s I met up with Rachael and Graham and was treated to a lovely pub meal.
Last on my list on day 2 was the Kayl herd of Rob Boote, arriving late in the evening and what a fantastic
evening it was, sun shining down on us as we walked through his herd, here I saw some very hard working open ribbed deep bodied cows doing a tremendous job on a very simple system. Robs enthusiasm for the shorthorn cow is to be admired, and after such devastating effects on the herd through TB I hope to see them back in the show ring soon as the next generation seems very keen. Kayl Country Life has done a brilliant job on this herd as his progeny were very uniformed and correct and easy to pick out.
After a very comfortable stay in
a local B&B and a hearealised, English, I set off on my tours to find Martin Tidmarsh and his Foldspride herd, after arriving on time to Martin’s farm I thought I was getting on great till I was met with a young chap that wasn’t expecting me
and had never heard of the North Midlands Shorthorn herds comp that’s when I realised I was on the farm that Martin had left the year before, so after a quick phone call
I took off again across Biddulph Moore like a man possessed and found Martin at his temporary abode to view a handful of stock
Daimat Tulip 2nd
Cotonhall Bullseye Duchess Anne
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Shorthorn