January 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Dominos first orders of semen have gone out and all being well he will be home in a couple of weeks. The first of our calves have been born and so far all has gone very well. We have had 5 heifer calves and one bull calf. Bluberry calved down naturally to Black Beauty and has had a very sweet heifer calf and for the first time in 3 calvings, Bluberry has taken to motherhood!! The other calves are all embryos, two Cyclone x Wisteria, one Black Beauty x Ursula, one Sumo x Wisteria and one Cyclone x Mehonge.

Destinee and Delilah are due to calf mid February along with two more recips and Wisteria, Acacia, Elizabeth and Chantilly later on in the year. Mehonge, Emerald, Darcia and Ermie are soon to be put on a flushing program and will then all be put back in calf.

We said goodbye to Gem, Gracey and Davita, as Phil Heard who bought Gem a couple of months ago also fell in love with Gracey and Davita so they have all joined him and his family in Wincanton, we wish him the best of luck with them all and are looking forward to hearing from him when Davita calves to Domino later on in the year.

December 2011

Finally all of Dominos tests are completed and UK sires are now in the process of taking semen from him. The semen will be available early January and is eligible for over seas sales too, we have had a lot of interest and orders in the pipe line.

We had our annual get together with the South West club members, combined with the presentation of awards, it was a brilliant night, lovely food,disco and great atmosphere. Richard and Julia Carter from the Twyning Ash Herd joined us so that Richard could present the awards for the Herd competition that he judged earlier in the year. Congratulations to all that won awards for the seasons showing and the herd competition presented.

We had a successful evening, being presented with:

• Best Male – Domino
• Best Show Team
• Best calf born in 2011 – 2nd place to Glitter
• Best medium sized herd

After the food and presentations, the disco got under way and our more senior members had a good old bop!! (Along with some of the younger ones).

That brings us to the end of 2011, so we would like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year from all at Highridge Blues.

See you next year

November 2011

Domino went off on his travels to UK sires and is nearly at the end of all his tests and isolation, so they will soon start to collect semen from him. We will have more info on this next month so keep a look out. Everything else has been on the quiet side, The recips are coming along nicely and have all had their multi vit bolus ready for calving down in January. Fingers crossed we will have a better year calving than last!!

October 2011

A reasonably quiet month, still a bit jet lagged from the showing season, but the boys and girls are still enjoying their time out in the field. We had very long trip up to Carlisle for the autumn sale followed by an even longer journey home via John Mawer over in Lincoln (not a very direct route home)!! Due to Johns retirement we have the pleasure of his lovely cow Immediate Et 2840 De Mehogne, A.K.A Blancmange by Jeff!, Tamhorn Acacia and Hawthorne Florence taking up residence with us.

We also popped up to Chelford for Graham Brindley and Ray Hulls combined sale and it was a real joy to see so many lovely blues all turned out to such a high standard, credit to all involved with the preparations for the sale.

We had a surprisingly easy session of halter breaking Galaxy, Glitter and Glisten in preparation for the Cornwall calf show at the end of the month. The calf show went very well, our little-uns were very well behaved and did us proud by bringing home two first places, a third and reserve breed champion, all three of these are embryo calfs from our much loved and dearly missed Dazzle.

A slightly sad time to, as we said goodbye to our dear Eternity, she has been sold to a new breeder, Tim Handy from Swindon and it sounds as though she is living a life of luxury!! Good luck to Tim and his family. Also sold this month was Gem, one of the three heifer calves from Dazzle, she has been sold to Phil Heard form Wincanton, another new breeder.  Best of luck to him also.

Domino is nearly ready to pack his bag and head off to stud, just a couple more routine tests and all being well he will be off to stud early November

September 2011

What a fantastic end to the show season!

Firstly at Frome Domino took breed champion which qualified him for the pedigree beef championship. This class is for all the breed champions, native and continental and is judged by a panel of seven judges. Domino took this championship last year so it was great to have the opportunity to defend his title! As we were drawing nearer to retiring Domino from the show ring, we were absolutely thrilled when once again he was tapped up as champion. He followed the day through by taking supreme champion fending off the champion commercial. Freya came into the grand parade with us, and missed her moment of fame by declining Adam Hensons request of presenting Dominos trophy with him in front of all the press!!

The following week was Newbury show, the last one of the season. We had a limited number of blues to take as two of our show team were bred by our judge, Danny Wyllie, so our team consisted of Domino, Fergus and Bonnie, but they all did us proud by winning their class. Domino went on to take the breed champion with Danny giving us some fantastic comments about him.

The interbreed followed on the next day. Our judge was Jim Barber and to our delight he put Domino up as champion. Jim stated that in all the years he had judged interbreed championships, he had never put a blue bull as champion because until that day he had never been presented with one good enough. This was such a fantastic thing to be said about Domino that it nearly brought tears to my eyes!! Also it was lovely for Dominos breeders, Andrew and Paula Phillips, as they were on the ring side watching.

We then had to go against the Native champion and Domino once again was put up as supreme champion. There was also some continental classes, where Domino and Fergus were second in the pair of bulls and Domino, Fergus and Bonnie came third in the group of three.

So this brought us to the end of the shows, Domino just kept shining and certainly knew how to finish in style before heading off to stud. He has built up quite a fan club and I think will always be remembered.

We would like to thank all our fellow members and everyone we have met at the shows for making it all so much fun and a huge thank you to all the judges that we have met through out the year.

Now that the shows have finished, we had best get some work done!!

Frosty was sold this month to a dairy farmer, who just fell in love with him, so good luck to the Davey family from Lewdown.

We have weaned our January/ February calves (so have had a very noisey few days) and we are planning to take a couple to a calf show at the end of October.

Domino has been quite busy with his lady friends and has enjoyed a well deserved holiday in the field, he is now in isolation so that we can get him lined up to go to stud. His tests are underway so keep a look out for more info as to when his semen will be available.

Our South West club decided to hold a herd competition this year, and the judge for this was Richard Carter from the Twyning Ash Herd, so we spent a very interesting couple of hours with him and picked up some useful tips.

August 2011

Still a busy month with shows, but again a very good one. Domino continuing on great form, although his younger stable mate, Fergus pipped him to the post at North Devon by taking breed champion, the only time this year Domino has been beaten and knocked off the podium!

Okehampton and Dunster were very good days with Domino taking the interbreed title at both.

Jim Barber came early in the month to back scan the young bulls and heifers, where the data collected goes towards our recording for breedplan.

Elena has a new home although shes not gone too far away and is still kind of in the family. She has been sold to Nigel and Helen for Sam to start up his own little herd.

July 2011

The cattle thoroughly enjoyed their time off, so did we!

The Royal Welsh was brill. See results for rundown. The atmosphere was great, it was so much fun and everyone had a real laugh. It was a very good show for us and for the blues all round and thankfully the weather was quite kind.

Domino carried on in great form and took Reserve Male Champion and Best Male Exhibit born before 31st December 2008 and Fergus won a very strong class of Junior Bulls and was awarded Best Bull born in 2010.

Domino was very busy for the rest of the show, he was selected for the team of five and for the second year on the trot, the blues were champions. The team consisted of four of the same animals as last year's team and the fifth member was Tim Bodily's lovely cow Cleopatra. It's a real moment to win the team of five and quite emotional!

Domino was also selected to join Matthew Jones champion heifer Electra for the Fitz Hugh pairs, and they came away with a well deserved Reserve Champions.

It was a long week and very tiring but well worth it.

One day home and we were off again. Domino was still on form and taking Supreme Champion at mid Devon show. Again, one day home and off to Woolsery. A lovely show, quite small but very enjoyable. We had a very successful show again, Domino Supreme Champion and Domino and Bonnie Champion Pairs.

So that was our heavy run of shows and with about 10 days at home until the next one, it gave us some much needed time at home to catch up on other jobs

June 2011

The Royal Cornwall show was a great success again. Domino was male champion and followed on to take the breed champion. Our judge, Jim Barber gave some very positive comments on Domino, he said he was an outstanding bull, that shows all the blue traits he should, the excellent growth and muscle but most importantly he has maintained such fantastic mobility.

Fergus – this was his first time out and he came away with reserve male champion which we were very pleased with as was his breeder, Phill Halhead who travelled all the way down to see Fergus strut his stuff! See the results page for full breakdown.

Scanning of recips was not so good! Only a couple of pregnancies out of the nine implanted, so a thumbs down on that !

Three counties show was our next trip. This was our first time showing there and it was great fun. The housing facilities for the cattle was great, big airy sheds, lots of space, and topped off with good company, however the washing facilities were very limited and with over 900 cattle exhibited there, wash time was challenging!!! The campsite was lovely, it sat right under the Malvern hills and was very picturesque and peaceful. See the show results for full info, but to cap it off, Domino was male and breed champion again and Domino, Bonnie, and Emerald stood reserve champions in a very strong class of interbreed group of three.

The cattle now have three weeks off until we make the very exciting trip up to The Royal Welsh. We girls ( Lorraine, Chloe and Freya ) are off on our hols to Cyprus and poor old Jeff is staying home to continue working!!!

Keep a look out next month for The Royal Welsh results.

May 2011

A mixed month, still a run of bad luck with poor Darcia having a very complicated birth leading to her lovely heifer calf by Sumo sadly passing away a few hours after birth. A successful result from scanning the recips, we had 6 pregnancies out of the 9 implanted and nine more recips were implanted to include, Betws Wispa X Sumo, Mehogne X Cyclone, Wisteria X Sumo. Devon county show was a success, Domino taking breed champion, Forest junior champion and for the 2nd year running we took the group of three interbreed title with Domino, Bonnie and Emerald ( see show results for full rundown)

Obviously with our show team missing a very important member ( Dazzle) it was great to come away with such excellent results. Keep a look out next month for more show results and scanning news.

April 2011

Not a month we ever want to repeat, what was to be one of our most exciting times was Dazzle calving, but unfortunately we had to face the very sad loss of her. Due to a ruptured uterus and excessive internal bleeding, she was unable to pull through which was devastating and a huge loss to our herd. The end of the month saw a very sweet heifer calf, Gee Whizz born out of Chantilly by our own Hawthorne Chapel. We also sold our lovely 2 young bulls, Elvis and Eddie, both going to local commercial farms.

March 2011

A new batch of 9 Simmental recips were implanted with a selection of embryos such as ; Wisteria X Cyclone, Wisteria X Sumo, Mehongne X Cyclone and Ursula X Blackbeauty. Already the schedules started to come through the letter box, so had best get our skates on and sort out a show team!

February 2011

Dominos first calf, Gazza is born, and Norbreck Fergus joins Highridge. Our recips got on the way with calving, some good luck and some bad. Some very special Dazzle X Bringlee Blackstar calves, Mehongne X Cyclone, Bluberry X Domino.

January 2011

Delilah sets off the new year with a lovely Empire heifer calf, named Gracey. The coldest month we can ever remember! With best part of 12 inches of snow on the ground and night time temp of -14 degrees and a daytime high of about -8 degrees, it was a long cold month. Let's pray for warmer weather for February when we start calving.

December 2010

A fairly quiet month, a successful flush from wisteria again, giving 16 embryos to sumo and hopefully 5 more chances of another Eddie as Ursula gave 5 embryos to Blackbeauty. The snow arrived early causing the usual complications including a hair raising journey to collect 2 new heifers from Danny and Jane Wyllies Tamhorn herd. Tamhorn Emerald- Ballygrange Alex X Tamhorn Buttercup and Tamhorn Forget me not - Ballygrange Alex X Tamhorn Wilma. These two young heifers will be out on the show circuit in 2011 and are an exciting addition to our herd.

November 2010

Wisteria flushed very well, producing 10 grade A embryos and Bonnie 3 grade a's. We decided to go ahead and line them back up to flush again in December and also to flush Ursula ( Eddie's Mum). Wisteria is going to Tamhorn Sumo, Bonnie to Hazlewood Freshman and Ursula to our own Black Beauty.

Our next job in hand was to try and track down some more recipients so that we can aim to implant in the spring.

October 2010

A reasonably quiet month was had and much needed. A couple of weeks in Egypt with temperatures reaching 46 degrees was enough to tire every one out but very much enjoyed and a great opportunity to recharge batteries.

Wisteria and Bonnie were being lined up to go onto a flushing programme , Wisteria going to Bluegrass Cyclone and Bonnie going to Bringlee Carlos and collection of embryos due early November.

September 2010

We headed off to Frome Show and had another very sucessful day all around but it was Domino's day taking breed champion, pedigree and supreme champion. The pedigree championship was a real buzz, just like a mixed native and continental interbreed but judged by a panel of seven judges with each judge awarding points to all the animals, it was a very strong class with lots of very worthy champions, so we were thrilled when Domino was tapped up as champion.

The following week was The Royal Berskire (Newbury). Jeff was unable to go due to a recip expecting to calve, so off I went with the help of Bart, George, Nigel, Candy, Lee and Danielle.

Again a great show which was lovely to end the season with. It was Domino's day again taking breed champion which was great as his breeders, Andrew phillips and family were there to watch.

We didnt succeed in the interbreed on Sunday, however we had some great results in the continental and Beef breeder classes.

The Saturday evening was full of celebrations and quite a few jolly people come the end!!

There was still no calve from our recip, I think jeff just wanted to skive off for the weekend!

We were then asked to exhibit Eddie at the Beef South West Event in the yearling bull of the year class.

Eddie was one of the youngest entries, giving away 8 months in age, as the dates for the class started from January 09, the class was split into native and continental sections and then split into two heats.

The judge Phillip Heard pulled out 3 animals from each heat in no particular order and each group of three went forward to be judged for the championship. So Eddie was selected to go through to the championship which we were over the moon with and then to put the cherry on the cake he was put as reserve continental champion to the Quick families outstanding Limousin bull. The beef event was a great day, generating alot of enquiries and positive feedback. The recip finally calved, a reall little cutie but yet another bull!

So all the show stock have been turned out now after a very long season, it was lovely to see them let their hair down and have a good charge around.

We then recieved a letter in the post to inform us that the President of Okehampton show has selected Domino to be awarded with 'The Presidents Award Trophy' from this years show, so that ended September with another smile :)

To round the summer up, we have had the most fantastic showing season we could ever have imagined. We achieved some great results and lots of lovely rosettes, trophies and sash's.

Congratulations to everyone else too,and thanks for the odd water fight and all the fun times.

So we have a quiet couple of months now, a trip to Carlise in October and a hopefully relaxing holiday to Egypt.

Catch up next month for any news.

August 2010

WOW- What a start to August. north devon Show was brill. see home page for full results. The show was held on the new site which was the lovely, the weather was not so lovely! Drowned rats springs to mind.

Anyway, dazzle the absoloute star of the show, went all the way and won supreme champion, judged by Jimmy McMillan (sterling simmentals), it very nearly brought a tear to the eye! Well done the newpole herd for winning the interbreed group of thee championships with their lovely young trio.

So celebrations were high, by the way of a very expensive round of ice creams (should have just brought the entire van)! although Andrew Haste still holds the record for the priciest round- haha!

So next on the cards was Okehampton, i was a bit confused as to what month of the year we were in; August or October- it was really quite cold but atleast it was dry. WOW again! only this time it was Dominos turn, male champion, breed champion, Continental champion, interbreed pairs champion with Dazzle and the cherry on the cake was Domino taking supreme champion.

No ice cream today as everyone was too cold, it was more like a cup of soup or hot chocolate day. Think that the fresh air got to all the kids; they were crazy but its lovely to seem them all having so much fun. Dazzle still shon bright, winning female champion and reserve breed champion and joining Domino in the interbreed pairs.

So we have reached the middle of the month already, keep posted to see how the rest of the month goes. On the agenda is: Scanning recips, Ursula due to calve, Dunster and Holsworthy show.

The second half of august was a bit quieter. Holsworthy show saw Andrew and julie win with dash and reserve to John Quicks cow Wilma. Domino and dazzle won the breed pairs and went on to take interbreed pairs champions.

The star of the show was (me) Lorraine, i left the lights on the truck all day so needless to say the result was a 'go nowhere truck' oops!

Recips were scanned for this year, all in all we have averaged about 65% throughout the year, so fingers crossed they all go on ok and calve down in the spring.

July 2010

The month started off quietly. Bonnie had calved at the end of June and all was fine. She calved naturally to Black Beauty, a bull calf named Forest, but his name at home quickly became Forest Gump or Gumpy! The remaining recips had embryo's implanted the middle of the month, so again sit, wait and see! Our first show of the month was Launceston, which like the previous two years turned out very wet.Next on the cards was The Royal Welsh. Our first time at the Welsh and we had a fantastic time. It was a long week as the cattle and Jeff left home on the Saturday and didn't return until Thursday night. A whole army of us went up on Sunday, Bart, George, Me, Freya, Chloe and her friends Craig, Grace and Kev. Well it was like moving house, I have never seen so many wellies, shoes and coats!! It was good fun and the success in the show ring was fab.The classes were strong, so to come back with a 1st and reserve male champion with Domino,and 2nd with Dazzle was brill. But to also be part of the winning Natwest team of five with Domino was amazing. It was tipping down with rain so we were all like drowned rats and all looked very glam for all the endless amounts of photos that were taken! So needless to say, a long night of celebrations was to follow after winning such a prestigious award. Domino was then selected to represent the blues in the pairs alongside Boomer Birch's champion 'Boomer DKNY' they were short listed but not selected as the winning pair. So the week drew to an end and time to go home, all very tired (including Domino & Dazzle) but chuffed to bits with the results. One day at home and then off to Mid Devon show. A good day again, Domino 2nd, Dazzle 1st, pairs 1st, reserve breed champion with Dazzle and 3rd in the interbreed pairs. A quick turn around and off to Woolsery on Monday. Woolsery (The Royal Woolsery!!) is quite a small show but still a very good number of blue entries. This was Dazzle's first time competing against Cows, but we were very pleased when she was placed first. She then took reserve breed champion and joined Domino to win the pairs and interbreed pairs. Little Elena came home with 3rd place out of a very strong class of about 8 heifers, herself being one of the youngest in the class.

June 2010

The beginning of June saw us at Bath and West show, what a scorcher!!!

Dazzle stood 2nd to a very good heifer exhibited by the Geary family and then she went on to take reserve female champion. Again Domino was 2nd to Dash, ' a very close call' the judge said, which was nice especially as Domino's previous owners came to see him strut his stuff !!!!

Darcia and Eternity both came 4th in their classes. Congratulations to the Newpole herd for winning reserve champion in the junior heifer interbreed and also congrats to Millie Hendy for winning Champion young handler.

Royal Cornwall What a show. We had some great results here, we were unable to take Domino due to him slipping up the ramp, so our team consisted of Eddie, Dazzle, Darcia, Elena & Eternity. See the results on our homepage for the complete rundown, Eddie came up trumps all the way; winning his class, male champion, breed champion, champion homebred and interbreed reserve champion pairs alongside Elena. Dazzle won her class, female champion and reserve breed champion. Darcia stood 2nd to dazzle and was reserve champion homebred and little Elena, her first time out came home with a well respected 2nd in a very large class of junior heifers and also pairing up with Eddie in the interbreed pairs to come reserve champions. Eddie and Elena both by black beauty, but from different cows made the almost perfect pair. Our judge Jim Sloan from Ireland liked Eddie a lot and said that there is a great future ahead of him which was lovely to hear. So all in all a fantastic show but a hard act to follow! The classes all had high numbers of entries and it was great to see that the blue entries were as high as some of the other breeds. It was a great show all round and we had a good laugh amongst other exhibitors. Gwynn and Jonathon from Marshalls of Chelford came down to help man the south west stand which was a great help and good to see them. Between returning home from Royal Cornwall and setting off for the long journey to Peterborough, we just about found time to scan our recips. Out of the 10 implanted we ended up with 6 pregnancies, so not too bad. We are now going to re-programme the heifers that didn't hold and aim to implant mid July.

East of England. After nearly 7 hours on the lorry, we arrived at the showground. We unloaded only to find that Darcia was a bit worse for wear. She was as stiff as a board, so our hopes for her doing well were a bit distant. However the show was quite productive and worth the journey. The downside was the weather- I think we must have gone back to February!! Cold, windy, bit of rain and chapped lips to show for it. Anyway- Domino won his class, male champion and reserve breed champion. Eddie was 2nd in his class then went on to take reserve junior champion. Dazzle was 3rd in her class, the judge felt she could do with a bit more condition but liked her a lot. Domino and Dazzle won the pairs and were both picked for the beef quartet which was to be held on the Sunday. The Sunday was another full day of showing, there was continental beef breed classes. All of these classes were full to brim, they were basically judged like interbreed classes. Domino was 2nd, Eddie was 3rd out of 11 and was the youngest, Dazzle was 3rd out of 15 and domino and Dazzle won the pairs out 9. Unfortunately the blues couldn't fit all the criteria to represent the breed in the beef quartet. Nigel Jenkinson and his wife Candy, travelled up over night to help us and we had a good laugh one evening as Freya pushed Nigel around the Campsite in her little buggy! After showing it was a mad rush to get packed up, loaded up and make our way back home. A very long few days but thoroughly enjoyed by all. Few wee!! A couple of weeks at home now to catch up on jobs, chores and paperwork.

May 2010

Dazzle flushed very well, we had 12 embryos in total, 9 grade A and 3 grade B. Dee on the other hand wasnt so productive, she only produced one embryo.We had 10 recips lined up so 9 of Dazzles were implanted and the one of Dee's; fingers crossed next month when we scan the recips.

So now we have a busy few weeks ahead, the shows are underway, with Devon County starting it all off. WOW... What a show!!! The weather was fantastic, possibly a little too hot, judging by the number of people carted off in ambulances due to the heat! Dazzle turned up trumps to takefemale and breed champion and also being in our group of three to win the interbreed champions.

Our homebred heifer, Darcia stood 2nd to Dazzle, won best exhibit bred in Devon and was also part of our winning trio. Domino stood 2nd to the Hastes bull Dash and was also part of our group of three. We had alot of very positive feedback about him so hopefully a promising future lies ahead of him.

So we then come to our homebred baby bull, Eddie. What a star he turned out to be. He was first in the junior bull class giving away alot in age and then also won the baby bull/heifer class. He then took reserve male champion and then to put the cherry on the cake, he was reserve junior interbreed champion, again being the youngest in the ring by a long way.

Next on the cards, the old faithfull Wisteria did what she always does and calved naturally, on her own, this time having a very cute bull calve by Black Beauty.

So thats May over and done with, catch up next month for scanning news and more show results.

Fun and games as we start to prepare for the shows!!

April 2010

We decided to go on and flush Dazzle & Dee before the shows made a start. Dazzle to Blackstar, and Dee to Black Beauty. Catch up next month to find out how it went. Chantilly had her first calve by Ross Alo, mum and baby doing well after a complicated start.

March 2010

Bluberry was flushed producing 9 grade A embryo's by Serum D'anloy. We implanted 3 of these along with two Black Beauty X Mehogne, and 2 Cyclone X Mehogne.

February 2010

A quiet month in all, the weather settled until we decided to travel to Carlisle where we had yet again snow rain and the longest journey in creation, 8 ½ hours L. Thankfully we got home quicker with a very poorly Jeff in the back! We had two very nice bull calves born, both by Ross Alo, out of Bluberry.

January 2010

Snow, snow and more snow, temperatures falling to -14°c. Buckets and barrels of water being carried pretty much 24/7. So we were really looking forward to our holiday – so what did we get? - A very snowy journey, threat of airport closures and the coldest Caribbean on record.