Females were the flavour of the day at the English Winter Fair held at Stafford when the top two tickets in the commercial ring were awarded to heifers.
Winning the heifer championship and tapped out as supreme by judges, Neil Slack and Colin Phillips, was the June, 2022-born heifer, Cor Blimey, from Paul Tippetts and Christine Williams. Bought from the Akrigg family at Kirkby Stephen in March, she is by the Limousin sire, Ballylin Popeye, and secured a second prize at the Agri-Expo last month. Tipping the scales at 620kg, she sold to JS Quality Meats, Uttoxeter, for £6400.
Following her to lift the reserve heifer and runner up overall was Daisy, a Blue cross from Charlotte and Georgia Davies. Bought privately from Dai Brute, this 20-month-old Gass Cheggers daughter that weighed in at 655kg, has picked up a number of prizes over the summer for the young sisters.
Julie Sedgewick’s Hitman secured the bullock championship. Unbeaten in his class all year, this Tanat Lotto-sired Blue cross was bought from John Smith-Jackson when he stood section champion at Carlisle in March. He crossed the weighbridge at 650kg.
Reserve bullock was D Plested’s Lincoln Red cross bullock which weighed in at 685kg.
Jennifer Hyslop landed the bred and fed championship with her own Tequila Rose which was reserve heifer at the Expo and had a successful summer show season, following in the hoof prints of her dam, Queen of Hearts, a previous Great Yorkshire Show champion. Sired by Huntershall Nutcracker, this 560kg lass went on to sell for £5.40 per kg to Jonny Black.
The run of national pedigree calf shows saw John Hall, Inglewood Edge, take to the ring to judge the inter-breed championship where he tapped out the Simmental leader from the Wood family’s Popes herd as champion marking the first such award for the breed.
Their Popes Premier is a January-born Popes Lethal Weapon son which was successfully shown during the summer alongside his dam, Popes Princes Immie – the inter-breed champion at the Great Yorkshire and supreme champion at the Simmental English National held at Royal Norfolk.
Standing reserve was Kevin Watret’s British Blue heifer, Solway View Tesha, a similarly-aged Felicien De Courriaulx daughter bred from Solway View Kesha.
Beltex lambs from the Hall family from Inglewood Edge, Cumbria, claimed the AR Bulmer Championship Cup for the best pair.
The family – John Hall together with his daughter, Joanne, her daughter April Skelton, and their able helpers, Chloe Hunter and Zoe Glendinning – claimed no fewer than four first prize tickets but it was their winning untrimmed duo from the 70kg-80kg class that rose to the top to stand supreme.
The duo which tipped the scales at a combined 78kg and later sold for £340 are by the pedigree ram, Murrays Grassmen ET while their dams are almost pure Beltex crosses.
Tasked with the role of judging was Anthony Glaves, a butcher and retailer from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, who said he was looking for a matching pair with good tops and loins that were well fleshed with a bit of fat cover.
Commenting on his supreme pair, he said: “They were a real good pair with tremendous tops, backend, and ribs and had very even proportions.”
Taking the reserve spot was the champion pure-bred pair from last year’s judge and debut exhibitor, Chris Wright, and his fiancée, Sarah Harryman. This 101kg pair was bred by Ben Cowton, sired by Gyffin Dexter, and later made £300 each.
Reserve in the untrimmed section was the winning pair from the 90kg to 100kg class from C Timm.
David Wadland made it a hat-trick in the carcase section when he secured his third championship on the bounce, this year with a E3L pure entry. It weighed 50kg live and 28.4kg hung up and was full of home breeding.
The judge commented: “Lovely shape through the leg and well-fleshed eye muscle. It also showed a nice fat covering.”
Reserve was a Lambington Gandalf-sired E3L entry from Robert West. This one was 43kg live and 24.5kg on the hook.
The Halls also won the 80kg-90kg and over 100kg classes while April won the Young Farmers class.
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