On Tuesday night, 6th October, I had the pleasure to be asked to judge the “coloured” calves at the Dairy Show and it proved to be quite a demanding task with all of the dairy breeds bar the Shorthorn represented but with the Guernsey calves to the fore. I was really delighted to be comfortable with my placings and to find that the Guernsey calves were competitive in all of the four classes.
The first class for calves born in 2009 had a quality calf Cadbury Hawk Poppy 73 from Richard Norman and Catherine Mills in first place, the first time I believe she has been shown with a Jersey in second place and Cadbury Royal Delta Victoria 2 in third place.
The second class was dominated by a pair of fancy Jerseys with Ravenhill Vindication Delmar in first place with Rivermead Iatola Sunny a close second, Joanne Langley showing Grandad’s Graylands Meadowsweet 66 was representing the Guernseys.
The Intermediate Class was perhaps the best of the night and had a pair of Brown Swiss heifers to add to the Ayrshire and Jersey competition, but my winner proved to be an easy choice and this was a Guernsey calf that i had not seen before and I didn’t recognize the handler, but she turned out to be Greensfield Mays Rosebank from the Greenslade family, in second place was a calf that I did know as Cadbury Hawks Onyx 2 has been in contention for most of the summer.
The final class proved most interesting as 4 of the Guernseys entered were either Chiddingstone prefixed or from Hurdlebrook where I have been relief milking and so they were stood aside whilst I placed the other calves and they were then placed into my line up by Philip Laity who had been judging the Holstein calves.
I had an Ayrshire heifer from Kent Douglas’s Diamond in first place and this heifer was correct in all places but just lacked a little dairiness, I had Cadbury Hawk Pretty 86 in second place but the final line up saw Chloe Paull and Hurdlebrook A Zenelope 6 placed second with one of Brian and Sheila Adams’s Chiddingstone Cassidy Margaret 2 in third place.
My Championship ring therefore had four Guernseys, three Jerseys and the Ayrshire in it an I was tempted to place the first and second place Guernseys from Class 3 as Champion and Reserve but in the end I decided that the Jersey Junior heifer just had more udder promise than the Onyx heifer but I was very happy with my Champion Greensfield Mays Rosebank and hope that she does get to the All Britain this coming weekend .
Laura Sales has done very well to get 29 Guernseys entered for the All Britain All Breeds, particularly as there are no calves from the “Heartland” of the FGB that is Cornwall.
A young lady who learned her craft in Cornwall, but is newly resident in Crewkerne Somerset won her section of the Handling classes and Bethan Senior continues to impress the ringside with her composure and it is her ability to settle calves in the ring that sets her apart at present, but there is very little to choose between any of our young handlers and they have come a long way in the last few years.