Get The Goss!.....

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.