The All Breeds show has developed from the Calf shows pioneered by the British Holstein Society before their intergration with the British Holstein Freisian Society to form Holstein-UK. Ayrshire, Dairy Shorthorn and Jersey youth sections were invited to become part of the All Britain-All Breeds a few years ago and Guernsey calves and young people competed for the first time in 2006. The 2007 event was cancelled because of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in August of 2007 and the 2008 event as mentioned above was postponed.
Unfortunately February 2009 after 6 weeks of cold weather, also affected entries in particular of Ayrshires and the Guernseys and only 12 Guernseys were forward but these were from 8 exhibitors and with calves from Cheshire (3), Cornwall (3), Kent (1), Somerset (2), Sussex (2) and Warwickshire (1) there was representation from most areas of the country. The Calf show had been included with the National Holstein show and the Centenary of Friesian/Holstein activities.
The Showmanship classes were held on Saturday with all the Coloured breed handlers competing together sorted by age with 78 handlers (10 with Guernseys) involved with 91 handlers competing with Holsteins. There were 44 under 12 years of the 169 competitors and to see the pleasure that these youngsters have as well as the parents and grandparents find in these competitions is very worthwhile.
David Christophers emerged as Guernsey Champion handler which was very appropiate as he and his family have been instrumental in the training of the FGB in recent years.
GUERNSEY CALF – Born after 1st Jan 2008
Clicking on the calves name will take you to the CDI pedigree
1) Morgan Senior Tredinney Andantes Lily 5
2) Senior / Warren Tredinney Prince Lilian 8
3) Miss C E Mills Cadbury Hawk Pretty 86
4) Kim McMullen Gwernyfed Posie
5) Jessica Hassall Elanbee Pacific Queen
The Junior class above was the strongest of the day on Sunday and Colin Gleed placed the calves with T Andantes Lily 5 from Morgan Senior in front of T Prince Lillian 8 shown by Bethan Senior, with C Hawk Pretty 86 from Cathryn Mills in third. The sires of the first two have belatedly entered AI, with Genus having semen from Andante whose Ex 94 dam was probably the most impressive daughter of Trotacre Jay Mr Luxury but unfortunately she lost a quarter as a heifer and was never able to fulfill her potential.
T Yogis Prince has recently been at UK Sires and this heifer as the clicking on the name will show has Yogibear on both sides of the pedigree, she was the standout calf at Tredinney in September at the AGM and her dam is one of the VG daughters of Yogibear.
In third place was a daughter of the top priced female at the White Ladies sale when purchased by Richard Norman and Cathryn Mills,the dam lives amongst Holsteins and has produced a lot of milk.
The fourth placed calf was shown by Kim McMullen competing for the first time and the calf was owned by Duncan Walford-Hayward and traces to Tiresford. Kim in addition to looking after the calves was also keeping control of Peter Hope!
The fifth placed calf was the first Guernsey calf born into the newly revived Elanbee herd of the Hassall family in Cheshire, the prefix having previously belonged to Grandfather and the dam was bred at Thornton.
GUERNSEY CALF – 1st Sept to 31st Dec 2007
1) Thomas Christophers Tredinney Buzzards Bracken 4
These two calves were both very dairy and David Christophers Bracken had the advantage in locomotion,she had been Junior Champion at Stithians last summer and Reserve Champion at the Cornwall calf show in August. She is the first Guernsey to be owned by David and he is a most welcome addition to the Guernsey ranks bringing his experience of Ayrshires and Jerseys to bear.
Stephen Waters from Sussex was second with a Ripley Farms RO Royalty daughter, Royalty was not imported by EGCS when a young bull as it was thought that we were too reliant on sons of Jensgolden Proking Royal Oak, and it is true that Sunninghill Park Royal Oak, Meadow Court Red Oak and Tiresford Pedro have all fulfilled there pedigree potential but unfortunately the first two had no semen available once proven. There are only 6 daughters of Royalty in the UK.
GUERNSEY CALF – 1st Jan to 31st Aug 2007
1) Martyn Dean Viaduct Betty 2
2) Joe Cole Summerhill Danaa 23
3) Katherine Waters Easby Peony 4
4) Kim McMulle Tiresford Snowdrop 46
Martyn Dean produced the winner of the last class and he again was competing for the first time,he and his sisters support all of the shows in the South East with a mixture of Guernseys, Jerseys and Swiss and once calved the females join Margaret Howies milking herd at Wrotham.
GUERNSEY CALF CHAMPIONSHIP Snowhill Challenge Trophy
Champion Calf
Thomas Christophers Tredinney Buzzards Bracken 4
Reserve Champion Calf
Morgan Senior Tredinney Andantes Lily 5
Honourable Mention Calf
Senior / Warren Tredinney Prince Lilian 8
The three calves in the Championship line up were all bred at Tredinney and by young sires that have been chozen for AI, unfortunately it will be sometime before other breeders will have calves on the ground by Andante and Yogis Prince (bureaucratic delays), the eldest daughters of Buzzard are calving now and he will have a proof in the summer and there is plenty of semen in store.
Thanks are due to Matthew and Coral Senior for transporting the calves all the way from Cornwall, if we are to build on the success of the ABAB then I think we should try and establish local groups as the Holsteins do, they have 26 clubs broadly based on County borders and 23 of those clubs were competing with teams of 6 calves all of which had to qualify by winning the local competition.
It would be possible to have Guernsey clubs from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Anglia, South of England, Wales, West Midlands (or possibly Cheshire and Staffs ), Cumbria and Yorkshire and wouldn’t it be good to involve Alderney and Guernsey Islands, those calves would have to be sold once over here but if they were good enough and they would be then that shouldn’t be a problem. If each Club were to bring 2 calves that would provide real competition and show the Guernsey breed off on an important stage.
What has been the main benefit of FGB has been to watch the friendships develop between are young Guernsey breeders over the last five years and that should be encouraged.
The most competitive and impressive section of the All Britain was the Dairy Shorthorn section and that breed society is being “driven” by a group of young breeders who started competing against each other 10 years ago with calves.
Alison Maddrell & Simon Gee of Holstein-UK produced a website dedicated to the Calf Show results which gives a real flavour of the event for those who were unable to attend. They are happy that we should link it to this site. There are full results for Saturdays showmanship classes and Sundays calf classes with a gallery of photos showing the efforts for breed promotion made by the young people.
