Village Voice December 2013/January 2014 | Page 16

FARM DIARY
Goscombe Farm, Gundleton 2013

September began with Alresford Show
which has already been reported. Romsey
Show the following weekend was equally
successful, although the journey to the
showground on the Friday evening with
Hubby towing the cattle trailer and me the
caravan (in torrential rain) was slightly
testing but we arrived safely and once the
four show animals were settled in their
designated stalls we enjoyed a supper of
fish and chips. Hubby then returned home
while Harriet and I spent the night in the
caravan adjacent to the cattle tents. I
intermittently checked the cattle throughout
the night, while Harriet slept soundly; having
done show sleepover previously, she
assured me ‘They’ll be fine Mum’. She was
right, the cattle were all very chilled and well
rested by the morning, more than I can say
about me!
No way could we have fed all the home
cattle, journeyed to the showground and
prepped all the animals for the first class at
8.45am. All the team had arrived by 7.30am
and with all hands on deck, the preparation
began. A good start with Kiera winning her
child handling class with ‘Barney’, followed
by ‘Gwen’ and ‘Heidi’ the pedigree Charolais
achieving an amazing second place in each
of their individual classes plus second in the
pairs, while Harriet secured second place
with ‘Junior’ in the beef class. A very
successful day all round and once safely
home, cattle settled, vehicles unpacked, it
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was time to relax now the show season was
over… well, until November anyway.
The following weekend Hubby and I had a
very enjoyable day at Newbury Show.
Although we were not showing, we still spent
most of the day in the cattle area watching
the professionals at work, picking up tips,
talking cattle talk, followed by a wonderful
lunch with the Charolais Breeders Society
and fellow exhibiters and rather too many
gla