Having missed the 2008 event, it was a case of deja vu. Saumarez Park provides a wonderful setting, for a Cattle show, the cows are straight from the field with no pre preparation and the amateur spirit prevails.
6 exhibitors brought adult cattle for the Senior show judged by James Warren whilst 5 exhibitors provided heifers for the Junior show judged by Jason Salisbury.
There were 4 bulls present from 4 different exhibitors and were Judged by Malcom Le Poidevin and the Senior Bull and Champion was from Bon and Margaret Martel and the Pedro son Cara’s Conqueror of Les Jaonnets is a tremendous individual for a 4 year old on a particularly good set of legs and feet and he teamed with 3 sisters by Pedro was to win the Peer Cup later in the day.
The junior Champion bull was Myrtles Zarellas Harvester, a 19 month old son of FM Tiller Loren out of Mrytles Zarella 5 a twice Royal Guernsey Champion and he had the advantage in balance and style over Meadow Court Ellys Eric an Aaron son out of the VG 89 (HUK) Meadow Court Hunters Elly and this high indexing young bull is not eligible for semen collection in the Island AI unit (idiosyncractic health regulations) and unless he can be imported to England is another bull (Cara’s Conqueror was/is in the same position) who will not be available for use in England and Wales.
James Warren’s first class of the day was for Cows six years and over
5 were forward and the winner here now milking in her 4th Lactation was the twice former Show Champion Keegan’s Cara of Les Jaonnetts (GMI +508 PLI£210), whose Aaron son Amir has been in use in the GGBP scheme, she had plenty of quality in hand in particular in the udder and Meadow Court Glacier Megan was second with Soltes of Le Hechet a 7th calver by Mercury Lorry in third place.
Meanwhile Jason Salisbury was placing the Heifer show and Robin Jamouneau’s in calf heifer by his own bull Invincibull and out of St Catherines Red Crystal a former show Champion was quite an impressive winner, with two rings running side by side it is difficult to report both and so I have concentrated on the cows.
Class Two for Cows aged 4.5 years to 6 years
Three forward and the winner was Les Jaonnetts Sunnys Maid (GMI +391 PLI£143)and her Conqueror son is having semen collected for GGBP and she is again a well balanced cow giving her the advantage over Meadow Court Hunters Judy by Treloweth Harebells Hunter 2 with Les Jaonnets Sids Twiggy in third place.
Class Three for Cows between 3 years and 4.5 years
The best class of the day with 9 young cows forward with 5 of them sired by Tiresford Pedro and this class probably made my trip worthwhile as these 5 young cows demonstrated just why Tiresford Pedro is the Number 1 UK bred bull with semen available. He has 50 daughters classified now in England and Wales and 39 out of 50 (78%) are Good Plus or Better. The Pedro heifers on Guernsey will have been classified as well but that information is not published.
James started with Les Jaonnetts Pedro’s Shulah (GMI+394 PLI£142) on top before finally promoting last years Champion Le Hechets Olivia(GMI +209 PLI£72) by Aaron and this H87 point heifer had a better dairy front end but did not have the udder as shown by Shulah, in third place was the highest GMI animal forward Meadow Court Pedro Max (GMI +554 PLI £142)
Class Four Heifers in milk under three
Four heifers forward were led by Carol Allett’s smart whole coloured Beechgroves Cornelius daughter Myrtles Clarissa with a very dairy Chiller Les Jaonnetts Chillers Detroit in second place with a smaller heifer from Petite Croute in third place.
Class Five for heifers over three and five or more months calved
Three forward and Les Jaonnetts Pedros Melonee was placed first in front of two from Petite Croute that were not level in the udder.
The Championship Class was first class and James took a long time to decide on his Champion and he finally gave Le Hechets Olivia the 2008 Champion the Crown in front of the 2007 and 2006 Champion Keegans Cara of Les Jaonnetts.
Jason meanwhile had been working his way through the six classes of heifers and he found his Champion with Westland Candy Floss a tall upstanding dairy heifer bred by the late Perrin Dorey but owned and shown by Robert Waters of Petite Croute.
James and Jason both gave reasons at the end of each class and these were appreciated by those on the ringside and James was asked to Judge the Young Handlers class in which 7 youngsters took part with Nico Ashplant winning the Under 16 and Sam Martin the Senior Class.
The Queens Cup is the most treasured of trophies by the exhibitors and uniquely in the Guernsey world is based on Inspection and Production but with the added factor that cows are milked out after the preliminary inspection and re-examined, had drawn 10 entries, 8 of which had competed in the earlier classes. However in the absence of any milking facilities other than by hand only two cows came forward and Keegans Cara of Les Jaonnetts was awarded the Trophy for the third time.
Unfortunately the Island cows are not included in the CDI web based pedigree service and so we are unable to link them to the pedigree pages as per usual, the GMI and PLI figures are taken from the Dairy Co listing which includes both Island and Mainland cows.