Page 58 - Demo

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 traveled more than 30 miles from
Carlisle!
JUDGE: THOMAS MOSCROP
My first stop was David Wainwrights
Boothdale herd, my trusty sat nav
sent me to Wales, this was a first
to 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
Shorthorn
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