Page 59 - Demo

S H O R T H O R N
Dairy
Strickley Starbu Judge Thomas Moscrop with Rob Boote and Granddaughter d 70
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
Moore 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
of these are very impressive.
Rantonall Songstress 50th EX 95
looked tremendous in her working
clothes and a very pleasing bunch
of heifers milking by Mancetter
Veracious Prince has 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
waisted 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.
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