Competition was strong as beef cattle kick-started the interbreed championships at the Royal Bath & West Show in the UK on Thursday (June 1st, 2023).
Under the respected and sharp eye of judge, Mary Cormack, the penultimate native and continental interbreed championships took place before she tapped out her chosen interbreed supreme champion.
Scooping breed champion and best native, British Limousin – two-year-old in-calf heifer, Dinmore Solovely – went on to clinch the supreme champion silverware also.
Purchased at 11-months-old from Paul Dawes’ Dinmore herd in Hereford, the heifer now resides with Adam Smith and his parents – Tony and Jo – near Bude, Cornwall.
They also took home the breed champion title with their three-year-old Beef Shorthorn cow, Oceanview Perfection, for the second year in a row.
Dinmore Solovely is by the Smith’s stock bull – Dinmore Orly – from purchased semen – and is out of the impressive dam, Dinmore Mylovely.
Her dam’s bloodline can be traced back to a well-respected Irish family and their 36,000gns cow, Carmorn Voney, according to Smith.
And the heifer’s lineage shines through with her success, as last year, she took reserve intermediate champion at the National Limousin Show.
The heifer will be at the Royal Cornwall Show before taking the summer off in preparation for her first calving.
Hereford winner
Competition was “strong”, with the reserve champion going to the Bowendu herd’s three-year-old Hereford bull, Solpoll 1 Trailblazer.
The accolade was not lost on Adam Bowen, who founded his Bowendu herd at Tydu Farm in South Wales in 2016 with an in-calf heifer and a cow and calf at foot from Dendor Herefords.
Out of Solitude 1 Duchess P946 and by Solpoll 1 Promotor, Trailblazer was acquired by the Bowen family at 14-months-old.
Now due his third crop of progeny, his homebred daughter, Bowendu 1 Ruby 2nd, born in January 2022, is “showing promise” and had her own Royal Bath & West success, taking female breed champion.
Dairy
Friday (June 2nd) was the big day for the interbreed championships across the other three livestock sections – dairy, sheep and pigs.
First up was the dairy individual interbreed championship, and judge Linda Batty said this “year’s final was a tough call with one of the finest fields of cows on display that I have judged for a long time”.
After much deliberation, the coveted supreme champion title went to Les and Tracy Rockett’s eight-year-old Ayrshire, Greenaway Ross Great Jubilee, sired by Easterchurch Ross and bred by the exhibitors.
Now in her fifth lactation and yielding 35kg, Greenaway Ross’s win came as “something of a surprise” for the Rockett family.
Now as the proud owner of the Bath & West’s Supreme Championship sash, Greenaway Ross will be doing a tour of county one-day shows this season instead of grazing at the Rockett family’s Ebsworthy Moor Farm near Okehampton in Devon.
It was a very successful show for the Rockett family, who were also the runners-up in the interbreed pairs award and took a string of class wins.
Reserve champion was awarded to Berryholme Lighthouse Flo, a Holstein from Kevin and Sian Rickard’s Starlet herd from Newport in South Wales. Judge, Linda Batty said Berryholme was “a fine cow which could well be worthy of first-place awards in future years”.
Sheep
In the sheep lines, a huge entry of over 1,700 gave the judges the difficult task of selecting the outstanding entries.
Picking the interbreed champion, judge Henry Doveman said the standard of entries was “remarkably high” before announcing the winner: Robert Hole’s Dorset Horn and Poll Dorset shearling ewe, Eucalyptus.
Reserve spot was given to 13-year-old Harry Stamp’s Dorset Down ram lamb, from the Bowbridge Flock from Highbridge in Somerset.
Pigs
In the pig section, the interbreed supreme champion was handed to Duroc boar, Hazeway Clyde.
The 10-month-old boar, by Deerpark Clyde, was bred by the exhibitor, Hayley Loveless, from Bridport in Dorset.
Deerpark Clyde will be trying his luck in the ring through the summer, including at the Royal Cornwall and Great Yorkshire Shows.
Judge Paul Churchyard placed a Large Black, Sock Doreen 254, as Reserve winner, after careful consideration of what he described as “a very high quality and impressive entry”.
The 10-month-old gilt is by Addison Malcolm 5, from Sock Doreen 236 and bred by the exhibitor, Martin Snell of Yeovil.
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