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September 19th 2009

Last year is now a clickable Archive. Thanks to the wonderful Jonathan Evans this year's news is now possible.

We had a good Show season, although we are begining to feel that it's a young person's game. I looked around the show grounds and wondered if there were many, if any, dumpy 65 year old's showing beasts, let alone mucking out, grooming, feeding and watering; staying up late and getting up at sparrow fart to tend these precious and beautiful creatures. A

Actually this year I didn't do that, I showed up, showed the animals and talked to the public (my forte!). Geoff had a less restful time because there was an outbreak of spookiness among the cattle in our showring and the one next to us.

But at the end of May Dora Mina and I did very well at the 3 Counties. this is a delightful Show that takes place among the beautiful Malvern Hills. The Highland Cattle exhibitors couldn't have been more friendly and we had a lovely time in and out of the show ring.

The next show was the Royal Welsh; the biggest and most gruelling of all the shows. It lasts 4 days but for us it lasts 6 days becassue we have to be there at least two days in advance to settle the cattle down, prepare them and make the cattle lines look good for the general public. Shows are our Shop window and as such we need to make our animals look as seductive as possible to attract attention. Even if you have show winners, which ours mostly are, you still have to make sure that the people who are coming to look at the breed in the cattle lines notice yours.

Of course I'm biased, but after over 20 years of very careful breeding I think ours are outstanding. They are just what we wanted to breed, in fact there is a very distinct typiness - as they say - to them: Short legged, deep bodied, very beautiful heads.

Here's a sweetie who won her class with Geoff : (Subhlair Dubh 2nd of The May)

We did best at the Lampeter Show. The Highlanders with 15 entries outnumbered any other breed at the show, including the Welsh Black. It was a tremendous turn out and we have to thank Mike and Liz McCombe (Great House Fold), Duncan and Angie Handley (Gilden Vale Fold); Becky and Huw Russell (Celyn Fold) and Dafydd Morgans who brought his bull, for coming all the way to our remote little show. But, having said that it is little, it is an important show for Highland Cattle and the turnout is out of all proportion to the size of the show.

At the Lampeter Show we did very well. We won the Championship with Dora Mina (she of the red rosette at the 3 Counties) and the a host of other trophies

The pictures here are rather crumpled becasue I havef taken them from the newspaper cuttings. It is totally vain of me, because there are some much better photographs of the cattle, but this one is the best of me!

Looking over some of our old newspaper cuttings I have found one of Geoff in 1994 with the mother of Dora Mina as a yearling winning a first at the Llanfyllen Show.

With short hair no less! Moly, as we call her, is now about to retire to a less populous farm where she and her sister, a year younger, will do good service for som eyears to come, but in the comparative peace of a smallholding, rather than the hurley burley of a big farm like the May.

And, just one more photograh that I simply had to add just for it's celebrity value! We won with Dora Mina as a heifer at the Llandewi Brefi Show in 1999!