January Newsletter 2023

Charolais Youth trip to Moulins
Myself, Maddie Clarke and Andrew Adam were lucky enough
to have very kindly been given the opportunity from the
Society, to travel across to France to go and see French
Charolais at their finest, at one of the most highly regarded
shows of the year, Moulins.
The standard of Charolais cattle was exceptional, and it was
quite a sight walking through approximately 400 Charolais
calves in one shed! Judging started at 8am and classes
regularly exceeded 20 in a class. It was great to see such a
huge variety of bloodlines brought forward in the forms of the
show calves and cattle, giving us the opportunity to really see
what clicks in France, and the stamp of animal that they are
looking for.
The afternoon consisted of overall championships where cattle
that had successfully been winning throughout the year at
various shows were bought head to head for overall winners.
One of the most memorable classes from the afternoon was
the senior stock bull class, where there was around 25 bulls
in the ring and I would be surprised if there was a bull under
1200 kilos in the ring!
I would like to thank the Charolais Society for giving us this
amazing opportunity, Allen and Fiona for their worldly wisdom
in navigating through Paris (!), the rest of the UK Charolais
breeders for their great company and the French breeders for
being so welcoming and looking after us.
Annabelle Howells
Andrew and I were fortunate enough to win a trip to the
Charolais Championship Finals in Moulins, back in early
December, after myself placing first at the National Youth
Stock Judging Finals and Andrew coming second. We also won
the pairs competition that day too.
On the first day of our trip traveling to France, we met up with
fellow Charolais breeders from the UK also joining us on our
trip to Moulins. After a flight, and several trains we arrived in
Moulins and decided we would nip into the show for a nosey
around, the evening before the show started. As soon as we
walked in the shed, both Andrew and I were amazed at how
many calves were in front of us and how they all looked like
peas in a pod. I would take a guess at saying there could have
been at least over 400 Charolais calves all in the first shed we
walked in. After a while of scouting about getting excited for
the show in the morning we found ourselves in a Steakhouse
where we had the best Charolais steak and lots of red wine!!
An early start for us on show day with judging starting at
8:00 am. Andrew and I headed out to the carpark where the
judging of the calves began. There were about 8 classes going
at the one time with roughly 15-20 calves in each class. It
was an eye opener and nothing like we have ever witnessed
before. With about two people on each calf, two judges in the
ring and plenty of on lookers, there were more folk in the ring
than cows. A crazy sight but an incredible show of cattle.
We were treated to an amazing three course lunch, courtesy
of the French Charolais Society and then spent the rest of the
20
No bull works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet