The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2014 - Issue 35 | Page 38

CATTLE

Holstein Young Breeders enjoy
Weekend Rally 2014 in Devon

Northern Ireland A Team:
Winners of the Field to Foto A
team were Northern Ireland,
pictured with Andrew Axford
from Semex and Jimmy
Wilson are Mark Henry,
Lindsay Fleming, Heather
Martin, Leiza Montgomery
and Lyndon Fleming.

Team Spirit: Southern Eastern
members won the Team Spirit
award for their enthusiasm
throughout the weekend.

Border and Lakeland 1st B
Team: Andrew Axford from
sponsors Semex, Holstein
UK Society president Jimmy
Wilson and the winning Field
to Foto B team Will Horsley,
Tom Wilson, Phil Potts, Abigail
Fisher and Eleanor Fisher
from Border and Lakeland.

Showmanship: Standards
were high in the showmanship

38

Aug/Sep 2014 FarmersMart

More than 200 young
dairy cattle enthusiasts
descended on Devon in
August for the annual
Holstein Young Breeders
Weekend Rally sponsored
by Semex , their national
sponsors.
Some 216 young breeders
enjoyed a weekend crammed
with activities laid on by the
Devon Club. The highlight
of the weekend for all
competitors is the Field to
Foto competition with 19
A teams and 11 B teams
competing. This year Northern
Ireland triumphed for the fourth
consecutive year. Their team
was Mark Henry clipping,
assisted by Lindsay Fleming
holding, Lyndon Fleming and
Heather Martin washed while
Leiza Montgomery did the
showmanship.
Winning the B section was
Border and Lakeland’s team of
William Horsley clipping, Philip
Potts holding, Tom Wilson and
Abigail Fisher washing with
Eleanor Fisher handling.
Roland Ley and Steve Green
had the task of scrutinising
competitors’ clipping during
the competition and then
assessed their final job, while
Stuart Ley and Chris Reed
oversaw the washing and
judged both the end result,
but also how competitors went
about the task. Taking centre
stage in the ring to judge the
handlers on showmanship
was James Hudson and with
the standard extremely high,
this was no easy task. In the
final stage of the Field to
Foto the team of five have
to work together to get the
best picture of their calf and
Lucinda Morgan scored them
on their team work combined
with the final picture.

Saturday saw Andy, Theresa
and Philip Cooke of Sutton
Lucy Holsteins host the stock
judging competition with
master judges Brian Miller and
Matthew Jenkins.
The winning Stock Judging
team were Carys Jones, Dan
Bown, Hannah Bown and
Matthew Jones from West
Midlands Club, while the
individual winners were Carys
Jones in the senior section and
Lancashire’s Thomas Hull in
the juniors.
At the same time as the stock
judging was taking place other
young members learned a lot
from four workshops covering
cow health, calf rearing,
breeding decisions and cow
management.
Following stock judging on
Saturday was a visit to Denis
Smith’s O Zܛ