THREE COUNTIES TRADITIONAL BREEDS DAY - 17th JUNE 2007.

This was the one day when rain did not fall although the show arenas were in a terrible state. We took two bulls and a young heifer ;The senior bull Heritage Benjamin,a son of Huddleston Cosmo, was placed second in his class to a well fleshed animal bred by Leslie Cooke; The junior bull Llandinabo Genius, a son of Llandinabo Zest won a stong class of young bulls and went on to be male Champion. Our heifer Llandinabo Gaymaid 81st was second in her class. We were very lucky that Mrs Hazel Timmis was able to stand in for Mr Colin Clarke who had broken his ankle and our thanks must go out to here for taking on the job at such short notice.

SUMMER AND FARMING

We all thought the summer was bound to get better! How wrong we were. We cut our first crops down in late June and finally finished in September. We did manage to make some passable forage over the period but were still worrying that we would not have enoughlet alone straw. I am only grateful that we have Herefords. They can maintain themselves on pretty scant rations.

The fields we rely on in a dry period were under water this year. The cattle were discontented and consequently have not done so well. We made the decision to feed concentrates in the fields to the younger animals to keep the growth rates up. In spite of the wet weather, we were short of grass until late August when, at last we saw some son. This autumn has proved a boon period for us with every animal still out thus saving forage and bedding. The price on concentrates worries us greatly.

AUTUMN CALVING.

Calving commenced on the 27th August and to date we have had 14 calves, 8 females and 6 males. We used two bulls this time. Heritage Nathan and Llandinabo Escort.Both bulls have produced some interesting calves and we have kept as bulls four, two by each bull. Those by Nathan are Harrier and Hasty and those by Escort are Hammer and Handful. Of the heifers the cattle we bought from Wendy Thomson still continue to produce quality animals most notable being from Heritage Prettymaid; she has an outstanding heifer by Escort,Llandinabo Judy 2nd. There is also an interesting heifer from Spotlight 72, a daughter of Spotlight 69 by Llandinabo Onset. This breeding is generation stagger at its best; Onset was calved in March 1965 and goes back to the foundation animals at Llandinabo. To us it proves the importance of ancestry and that selection from known and proven bloodlines is the way ahead.

FATSTOCK SHOWS.

We were sad to hear that Birmingham Winter Fair has been cancelled this year but we have decided to go to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair instead. We have entered two steers and a heifer. We will be showing against cross bred cattle as well which will make it very interesting.