Events
in 2010.
South
West Club Raise Money for the Devon Air Ambulance.
The South West of England Aberdeen Angus Club has raised £300 for the Devon Air Ambulance, so celebrated the achievment at the Devon County Show with an official presentation. The Club had an auction after the annual Dinner, which was held in conjunction with the SW Limousin Club.
Claire Jones (new SW Aberdeen Angus Club Chairman) is pictured presenting it to the Air Ambulance with Members of both Club present. In total £900 was raised and split three ways between the Clubs & the Air Ambulance.
The South West of England Aberdeen Angus Club has raised £300 for the Devon Air Ambulance, so celebrated the achievment at the Devon County Show with an official presentation. The Club had an auction after the annual Dinner, which was held in conjunction with the SW Limousin Club.
Claire Jones (new SW Aberdeen Angus Club Chairman) is pictured presenting it to the Air Ambulance with Members of both Club present. In total £900 was raised and split three ways between the Clubs & the Air Ambulance.
Rull
Open Day.
More than 60 South West of England Club members and friends attended the very sociable Herd Walk at Ed & Claire Jones Rull Herd at Cullompton Devon last Sunday. The Jones’ have been very successful in the last few years and members were keen to find out the secrets behind their success!
Members arrived and were treated to a fully cooked Sunday lunch, with puddings that made your mouth water just looking at them! Claire and her daughters Annie, Becks and Katherine had worked really hard to feed us all and much to Claire’s surprise we all managed to fit into the house!
After lunch, we didn’t have time for a nap to sleep off our sumptuous lunch, we were straight on with viewing the Rull herd. As expected, Ed and his team had gone to tremendous efforts to show the cattle off to their full advantage. The yearling heifers and bulls had been tied up, clipped out and presented turned out for a show. All the cows had the same clipping treatment too. As the younger cattle were haltered it was an ideal opportunity to test the Members with a little stockjudging! The cattle were paraded and Colin Hutchings acted as master judge, everyone had a go including the youngest ones. Colin later went through the cattle to give his reasons which were incredibly interesting and very entertaining!! Trevor Dawe won the prize for judging heifers andNigel Bunkum for judging the bulls.
It was great to see members old and new attend the day and it was brilliant to have Mary Smallwood back with us after her illness. On to the next Club event now with a visit to UK Sires bull stud on the 13th April 2010.
A video of the day can be found here.
More than 60 South West of England Club members and friends attended the very sociable Herd Walk at Ed & Claire Jones Rull Herd at Cullompton Devon last Sunday. The Jones’ have been very successful in the last few years and members were keen to find out the secrets behind their success!
Members arrived and were treated to a fully cooked Sunday lunch, with puddings that made your mouth water just looking at them! Claire and her daughters Annie, Becks and Katherine had worked really hard to feed us all and much to Claire’s surprise we all managed to fit into the house!
After lunch, we didn’t have time for a nap to sleep off our sumptuous lunch, we were straight on with viewing the Rull herd. As expected, Ed and his team had gone to tremendous efforts to show the cattle off to their full advantage. The yearling heifers and bulls had been tied up, clipped out and presented turned out for a show. All the cows had the same clipping treatment too. As the younger cattle were haltered it was an ideal opportunity to test the Members with a little stockjudging! The cattle were paraded and Colin Hutchings acted as master judge, everyone had a go including the youngest ones. Colin later went through the cattle to give his reasons which were incredibly interesting and very entertaining!! Trevor Dawe won the prize for judging heifers andNigel Bunkum for judging the bulls.
It was great to see members old and new attend the day and it was brilliant to have Mary Smallwood back with us after her illness. On to the next Club event now with a visit to UK Sires bull stud on the 13th April 2010.
A video of the day can be found here.
UK
Sires Visit.
In April the Club was very lucky to be able to have a guided tour of the UK Sires Bull Stud at Totnes. Rob Wills works very hard for the UK Pedigree Beef industry abroad especially the Angus breed. Rob had given us a very informative talk at our AGM in 2009 and it was great to see what UK sires are doing first hand. The evening started with great amusement when we all had to get into disposable overalls.
The bull stud has rigorous bio security rules for both cattle and human visitors. We were given a look around the lab where the technician showed us how they tested and stored the semen. We all looked through the microscope to see what good semen looks like and saw the freezing process and how they get it in those tiny little straws. We then moved onto looking at the bulls and that was a real eye opener. Obviously bulls don’t work quite so well when they are fat so a strict feed regime is followed and it was really interesting to see which bulls were still looking well on this regime. It was really interesting to chat to Rob & his team and I’msure everyone learnt a lot, especially what type of cattle different countries are looking for.
We were then treated to a lovely supper to end the evening.
In April the Club was very lucky to be able to have a guided tour of the UK Sires Bull Stud at Totnes. Rob Wills works very hard for the UK Pedigree Beef industry abroad especially the Angus breed. Rob had given us a very informative talk at our AGM in 2009 and it was great to see what UK sires are doing first hand. The evening started with great amusement when we all had to get into disposable overalls.
The bull stud has rigorous bio security rules for both cattle and human visitors. We were given a look around the lab where the technician showed us how they tested and stored the semen. We all looked through the microscope to see what good semen looks like and saw the freezing process and how they get it in those tiny little straws. We then moved onto looking at the bulls and that was a real eye opener. Obviously bulls don’t work quite so well when they are fat so a strict feed regime is followed and it was really interesting to see which bulls were still looking well on this regime. It was really interesting to chat to Rob & his team and I’msure everyone learnt a lot, especially what type of cattle different countries are looking for.
We were then treated to a lovely supper to end the evening.
Herd
Visit to the Hoodown and Watton Herd.
In September a good number of Club Members, old and new, attended a herd visit to the Hoodown Herd of Nick & Sue Harris at Kingswear and Richard & Jean Tully at Brixham. We started the day at the Hoodown Farm where we were treated to a lovely lunch and very sociable too.
Kingswear is a lovely location and the views were fabulous but extremely hilly to farm and tremendously dry too. The Harris Family farm around 60 cows on a largely commercial basis with most of there young cattle being sold through through the certified Angus scheme. They have been in Angus for several years now and we saw some great cattle with the field of Angus steers and heifers being particularly impressive.
Next stop on the intinerary was just down the road to Brixham where one of Sue and Nick’s bulls is working tremendously well. Richard and Jean Tully have just started in Angus and it was nice to see the herd of cows they have put together and the new bull recently arrived from Scotland. We hope the Club will get to go back in a few years to see how the herd is getting on.
We ended the day with afternoon tea on the lawn and the debate over jam and cream scones continued! Or should I say cream and jam!
In September a good number of Club Members, old and new, attended a herd visit to the Hoodown Herd of Nick & Sue Harris at Kingswear and Richard & Jean Tully at Brixham. We started the day at the Hoodown Farm where we were treated to a lovely lunch and very sociable too.
Kingswear is a lovely location and the views were fabulous but extremely hilly to farm and tremendously dry too. The Harris Family farm around 60 cows on a largely commercial basis with most of there young cattle being sold through through the certified Angus scheme. They have been in Angus for several years now and we saw some great cattle with the field of Angus steers and heifers being particularly impressive.
Next stop on the intinerary was just down the road to Brixham where one of Sue and Nick’s bulls is working tremendously well. Richard and Jean Tully have just started in Angus and it was nice to see the herd of cows they have put together and the new bull recently arrived from Scotland. We hope the Club will get to go back in a few years to see how the herd is getting on.
We ended the day with afternoon tea on the lawn and the debate over jam and cream scones continued! Or should I say cream and jam!