British Simmental Review 2018

REGIONAL CLUB REPORTS
David Loftus and Judge John Rixon
The herd competition
results presentation took
place by kind invitation
of David and Christine
Loftus at the home of
the Blackpool herd.
We enjoyed a lovely
afternoon, saw some
wonderful cattle and their
Maize Maze. Thank you
to David and Christine for
your hospitality, it was
much appreciated.
Harriet Thomas Mee
and Judge John Rixon
Farm. What a treat! A super herd of Simmentals with the
added advantage of having a walk around the beautiful
thoroughbred mares and foals. Once more, thank you for
having us - we had a fantastic morning.
The calf shows were well represented this year
Congratulations go to Richard and Louise Storer Smith on
their wins at Agri Expo and the English Winter Fair.
The year ended with the English Winter Fair, manned
as always by Mandy and Kath with help from Andrea, Sally
and Christine. Thank you to all for your hard work, it is
much appreciated and thank you too for all the delicious
cakes, we are so lucky to have so many talented bakers in
our midst!
We rounded off with our AGM, always a nice end to the
year as we have a good turnout and get chance to catchup
with our members old and new.
Christine & David Loftus with Rob Fitton
Later in September some of us joined up with the South
East group and travelled to Ireland. We had a lovely visit to
Peter and Marion O’Connell’s Raceview herd in Mallow. The
weather was kind and we were treated to a lovely lunch.
Thank you to you both for your great hospitality. We then
travelled North to visit the Clonagh herd of Garrett and
Lyndsey Behan. We had a lovely evening walk around their
impressive herd and saw some lovely cattle - some of them
I am sure we will see a lot more of in the future. We were
again very well fed and watered and would like to thank
the Behan’s for their hospitality.
Saturday morning dawned, and it was as wet as it could
have been for our visit to Strokestown to the National
Simmental calf finals. We were treated to a great display
of cattle once more, and had a lovely day despite the
weather.
Our final visit was to the Ballybane herd and Stud
On a sad note, we lost a valued member of our club
this year, Mr Joe Mee lost his battle in October. He was a
long-standing member who will be sorely missed, and our
sympathies go to his wife Jillian and family.
I would like to thank Robert for his support as Vice
Chairman and to Mandy for her tireless work as secretary -
we would be lost without her. Thanks also go to Bill Turrell,
our long-standing treasurer. Thank you for the huge
amount of time you all dedicate to the smooth running of
the club.
Finally, although we are living in uncertain times our
breed continues to go from strength to strength. Long may
that continue.
I would like to wish all members and Simmental
breeders a happy and successful 2019.
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