Page 57 - Shorthorn Magazine

that he had retained from his sale. They didn’t disappoint as I was presented with a very smart young white Tulip cow by Blackwood Park Butternut and a very nice calf by Cor Bloo Ricochet which will definitely be one to look out for in the future round the show circuit.
On my travels over Biddulph
Moor I had noticed a small herd of shorthorns grazing on a hill side
in the blazing summer sun and questioned Martin as to whose they would be. Turned out they belonged to a young girl called Thuma Poole Bailey and her family, as I would be driving back past them, I decided to make the phone call and basically tell them I was calling in to judge the herd! So there started my second herd of the day, a herd newly started by buying cows round society sales as they had made the transition from beef sucklers to dairy. The Rockstar herd is definitely in safe hands with young Thuma who is obviously very keen and determined to make a go of it. The herd was a mixed bag of some very modern genetics right through to a northern dairy, but as I walked through the young stock, I saw a
very pleasing crop of young heifers by Oxton Dunkirk where there was a particular sharp young maiden heifer Rockstar Wildeyes and a roan in calf heifer Rockstar Jean who had all the makings of a real cow. Thanks to the Poole Baileys for accommodating me at short notice but I’m sure we will see a lot more of this young lady with her Rockstar herd in the future.
Next up was the Rantonall herd of David Winnington, on arrival David greeted me with a big supportive cast on his foot as he had a door drop on it a few days previous! Everything was arranged so David could drive round and show me his cattle from the comfort of his Jeep seat, but
his cows had other ideas and were particularly awkward and didn’t cooperate with him at all! David proceeded to let the milkers onto
a fresh pasture to settle them and what a sight they were to see such a large herd of purebred shorthorns all grazing their way down a new field of grass towards me. A picture of bovine beauty. This is a herd that boasts cows in their 5,6,7,8 and 9 lactations, cows sailing through this lush Staffordshire grass like ships in the night. The feet legs and locomotion
Judge Thomas Moscrop with Rob Boote and Granddaughter
of these are very impressive. Rantonall Songstress 50th EX96 looked tremendous in her working clothes and a very pleasing bunch
of heifers milking by Mancetter Veracious Prince have certainly bred very consistently. After a quick look through David’s youngstock and hay! Yes, hay in September! Really is the Land of milk and honey down here!
I headed off back up the M6
to search for Paige Jepson’s Rowanmoor herd, Paige works on
a New Zealand style dairy farm and her boss allows her to keep her cows there as well, again just a small
herd but made up for it in quality. She had a beautiful light roan calf
by Oxton Fever, Rowanmoor Lilac Orchid which I’m sure we will all see again on the show circuit round the Midlands and of course Cotonhall Jackpot Starlet was quite a picture out grazing. Leaving Paige’s, I headed off for my overnight stay at Ince Chester where the Crank family had very kindly offered to put me up for the night, arriving later than I had hoped me and Edward had the hard job of sampling some refreshments while Sarah leisurely slaved over
a hot stove preparing our evening meal! Quite the domestic goddess that would put Mary Berry to
shame! The next morning as Anna, Robert and Edward went about
their morning duties of milking and feeding up I had a walk through
the Earlsgift and Avondale milkers, where I found numerous big deep bodied very milky cows and some very smart clean boned bright calves by Amber Illuminate. Thanks to
the Crank family for their excellent hospitality.
I left the Cranks on the Thursday morning to head to the Dunham
herd, the day before I had noticed a place called Dunham on the Hill, so me in my wisdom assumed that that would be near the home of the Dunham herd. Deciding I had time to kill I pulled over bought a paper and decided to relax for an hour. After browsing through said paper
I happened to look up and realised
I was actually sitting outside Rob Bootes farm! I fired up the sat nav, put in the post code for the Dunham herd and realised I was about 40 miles away!!! So off I went like a crazy farmer cross rally driver trying to make up the half hour or so I had wasted sitting reading the blooming paper, luckily for me when I arrived at Dunham Massey, Stuart’s cows had escaped, and he was away retrieving them and my lateness (again) went unnoticed! As I waited for Stuart to return I made friends with the family pet which I must say is the biggest dog I’ve seen in my life, thinking it was pointless to run away from something so big, lucky for me the Newfoundland cross Labrador was soft as sh...butter!!
Again the sun was beaming down and the milk cows were crammed under a tree trying to avoid the
30 degree sun, making it slightly difficult to see them to their full potential but what a uniformed herd of cows they were. There were some really good uddered cows
by Dunham Mariner. A particularly nice heifer Dunham Wild Honey by Brinsbury Barney, a Hooton Envoy son who is leaving some very correct youthful cows. This is a herd of very low maintenance cows doing the business on a simple system of grass and baled silage with concentrate in the parlour.
Shorthorn 57