The Royal Show 2006
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| Issue 3 | Spring 2007 | |
| Champion Southdown The Royal Show 2006 |
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Some of the regional groups have trimming and s h owi n g wo r k s h o p s planned in readiness for the coming show season. Why not consider going along? They promise to be great days out and are run by very knowledgeable shepherds with many years experience of both preparing sheep for shows and in the art of showing sheep to their best in the show ring.
The list of shows included in this newsletter gives many show dates, up and down the country, but local to every region there are many smaller, one day shows. The co-ordinator of your local regional group will be able to give you more details of what is happening in your immediate area and more details of any events that are planned.
Over 15,600 people flocked to the Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair which was the first Christmas Fair to be held on the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet. This popularity has ensured that it is set to be a major annual event.
The Southdown classes were well supported, with the John Ellman Trophy for the Champion Southdowns going to A & C Brown.
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| Adam & Carolyn Brown with their winning Southdowns |
In the Butcher’s Live/Dead Class for the ‘pure-bred’ or ‘sired by a Southdown,’ honours were shared between Miss Lizzy Harmer for the best live animal and Messrs. Wakeham-Dawson & Harmer for the best carcase. Southdown Success at Smithfield
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| Messrs Wakeham-Dawson & Harmer’s winning carcase |
It says a great deal for the popularity of the breed in that at the auction of stock on the final day, whilst many other breeds were purchased by the numerous butchers standing around the sale ring, the majority of the Southdowns were purchased by breeders and went off to new homes instead of to the slaughterhouse!
Beds, Bucks & Herts Group
Twenty members met in November at The Saracens Hotel in Towcester. This was reasonably central, particularly as members from Leics, Oxon, Cambs and Northants joined us too. The hotel fed us lovely food and the service was superb, and as we had a room to ourselves we could talk together with no disturbance, although we did keep things informal.
After lunch we went to see the Spratton Flock belonging to the Hawtin family who live just a few miles from Towcester. This flock had won the Novice Flock Competition in 2006 and it was a great pleasure to see these sheep as well as a pedigree herd of Herefords, and various breeds of poultry. After we had looked at the sheep and discussed their breeding and future lambing plans we were given a delicious tea by Mrs Hawtin, ending a very pleasant day .
East Anglian Group
Sheep breeders from across East Anglia gathered at Bradfield Combust on 15 February for the annual quiz night. After our triumphant debut victory last year the East Anglia Southdown group were hosts and organisers.
Southdown breeders were out in force. In addition to our own team there were Society members playing for the Sheep Dog Society and Hampshire Downs. The quiz was close fought with the lead changing hands every round and all seven teams in contention when the last round on Food and Countryside arrived. At that point the Hampshires surged ahead and answered every question correctly.
Jim Cresswell accepted the trophy on behalf of the Hampshires, and with it the honour of organising next year's quiz. The Southdown team ended up in fifth place. Next year's date is Wednesday 13 February. Put it in your diary now!
East Midlands Group
The East Midlands group met for the first time on 14th January for Sunday lunch. The restaurant had kindly seated us in a room away from the rest of the diners. I don’t know if they expected us to be a rowdy bunch! It was a wonderful opportunity for local Southdown breeders to all meet and chat in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. It was surprising the expanse of experience we had gathered around the table; everyone from sheep beginners to professional farmers and shepherds.
South West Group
The group met for its winter meeting on Feb 4th when we were given a short presentation by Nick Webber from the Exmoor Rural Enterprise Gateway Project, who explained what funds and opportunities were available to the group and how to apply for them.
After a break for coffee Mr Alan Draper gave us a most interesting, knowledgeable and useful talk on nutrition and feeding of the ewe prior to lambing. This was followed by a question and answer session after lunch.
West Midlands Group
The West Midlands Group has 15 regular members and occasional visitors. We are mostly new to sheep keeping or with a few years experience, with flock sizes from a few to twenty ewes. We are lucky enough to have two owners who show regularly, and another who buys and sells Southdowns and has a larger permanent flock and a flock that has been in existence for over 20 years. This is a goodly amount of expertise to call on.
As a group we aim to rally round when needed and pass on good and bad experiences to make us all better stock keepers. We also have wonderful skills at making events happy and feeding people well! For more details contact Jane Ing on 01939 260100.
Dress Code at The Royal Welsh Show
I am writing to you on behalf on the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society with regards to the standard of dress worn in the livestock Parade at the Royal Welsh Show.
The Society has always believed that the parade of prize winning livestock is an essential part of the Show. It is the best opportunity for the agricultural industry to promote itself to the general public. For this reason the Society feels that all exhibitors and handlers that participate in the parade should be appropriately dressed. Unfortunately over the past few years, the Society has found that the standard of dress worn in the parades has been somewhat disappointing.
The society hopes that you will be able to assist us with this problem by emphasising the importance to your members of exhibitors being appropriately dressed whilst competing at the Show and whilst in the parades. It is disappointing to see exhibitors wearing shorts and flip flops when attempting to promote a particular breed!
I would be most grateful if you would support the Society on this matter, as I am sure you will agree it will be for the benefit of all concerned.
Yours sincerely,
RWAS Company Secretary
Book Reviews
The Shepherd’s Calendar
V. Stephenson
Mr. Ed Christian of Hemingstone, Suffolk, recently purchased a new up-dated edition of this book, which was originally written over 20 years ago. The book is written in a practical, down-to-earth way and takes the reader through the sheep keeping year. It is available at £6.99 from the Rare Breed’s Survival Trust.
Sheep and Man
M. L. Ryder
A new edition of this standard work has just been published. It charts the history of the relationship between sheep and mankind from their domestication in around 10,000 B.C. The book combines evidence from every possible source – anthropology, geography, folklore, linguistics, biology and agriculture. It is available now, priced at £75.
Beds, Bucks & Herts Group
Members are planning on getting together after the first day of showing at the Herts County Show on Saturday 26th May. Everyone is welcome to come along and join in. For more details contact Lesley Mead on 01525 270135
East Anglian Group
The East Anglian Group will be holding their annual barbecue at The Suffolk Show after the first day of showing. All members and friends are welcome to join in what has become a much looked forward to event. Wednesday 30th May from 5pm. More details from Lindsay Dane 01353 721216; e-mail: lcd13@cam.ac.uk
East Midlands Group
We will be meeting again on Saturday, 28th April at Rosedene, Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire. Irving Pallister has most kindly offered to run a trimming class and Sid Cook has also been generous with an offer to host the day and supply some willing volunteers. We are hoping to cover selecting sheep for show, trimming and practise handling sheep for the show ring.
The Lincolnshire Show takes place on 20th & 21st June and we are
hoping to have a group BBQ on the Thursday. It would be great if, following our
trimming class, we could support this superb show with the aim of getting
Southdown classes up and running in the next few years. The show is very
friendly and very well organised which makes the whole experience a lot less
daunting! www.lincolnshireshow.co.uk
More details from Carolyn Anderson 01522 778757; e-mail:
carolyn.anderson@eon-uk.com
South East Group
The South East Regional Group of Southdown Breeders will hold its inaugural meeting at 2pm on Saturday June 16th 2007 at Courthouse Farm, Ditchling Road, Offham, Lewes, East Sussex, by kind permission of Messrs Clark and Littmoden. The afternoon will comprise a farm walk together with the chance to view the Strawberry Down Flock, followed by a barbeque. All members are welcome to join in - this is an ideal opportunity to meet local breeders and put forward your suggestions of what you would like to see happening in the South East Group. For more details contact Mark Littmoden on 01273 483636
South West Group
Our next meeting is on Sunday 22nd April at North Hele Farm, Clayhanger, when Mr Irving Pallister has kindly agreed to give us a trimming demonstration ready for the coming show season. There will be an opportunity for members to try some trimming with Irving’s guidance, so bring your trimming kit if you have one. If you don’t, then trimmers will be available on the day. All group members and Southdown Sheep Society members are welcome. More details from: Adam & Caroline Brown on 01398 361245
The South West breeders’ group would like to encourage members to come along and exhibit sheep at The North Somerset Show. This local one day show will be held at Wraxhall near Bristol on Monday 7th May. For a schedule, telephone the Show Secretary, Miss Katie Hutchings on 08456 342464.
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| Sharon with a Colwood Lamb |
Sharon, who is currently The President of The Southdown Sheep Society, has been keeping Southdowns for many years. She lives in Golford in Kent with many Border Collies, a variety of chickens and of course her Southdown Sheep.
She married a farmer who owned a flock of Southdowns and then set to work improving them by careful and selective breeding. Sharon built the Colwood flock up to 100 sheep, before trimming the numbers back to 20 cracking ewes.
Over the years Sharon has won many of the top trophies in the show ring and was invited to become a judge eight years ago.
She will be judging at the Surrey Show and the Welsh Smallholder Show this year and thoroughly enjoys it. In the show ring, she likes sheep with good conformation on the back-end, good straight legs which are not too long, a leg at each corner and the traditional shorter necked sheep.
Her favourite part of the sheep keeping year was showing, although she also loves lambing time with the excitement of the birth of new lambs. Sharon starts lambing early in the year and ‘sponges’ her ewes to help control lambing time.
She runs The Colwood flock of Southdowns as a sideline to her business, which is repairing musical instruments. A talented musician , Sharon plays principal cornet in the Cranbrook Town Band.
Spare time is always hard to find and she is heavily involved in Border Collie rescue, working to help rehabilitate and re-home dogs.
Last year she, bravely undertook a fire walk over a bed of burning coals, for charity and raised over £800 for the Kent Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre.
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| Hot foot across the burning embers Photo courtesy of The Kentish Gazette |
New Members
A very warm welcome to the all of the new members of The Society:
Mr. & Mrs. C. Hourd, Melton Mowbray, Leics.
John Stammers, Salisbury, Wilts.
D. K. Jones, Denbighshire, N Wales
Tomos Ellis, Corwen, Wales
Kevin Kettrick, Ticehurst, East Sussex
Mr. R. O. Cox, Stoney Stanton, Leics.
Miss K. E. James, Coleshill, West Midlands
Fiona Apthorp, Horningsea, Cambs.
Anne Bussey, Ruckinge, Kent
D. & C. Burrough, Honiton, Devon
Paul & Pat Butler, Barnoldswick, Lancs.
John H. Lewis, Pontypool, Gwent
Neil Oakman, Debden, Essex
James Cottam,Haslemere, Surrey
Mrs. T. Knox & Mr. I. Townsend, Sinfold, West Sussex
Colchester Zoo
Mr. & Mrs. M. Smale, Tavistock, Devon
N. & E. Boyles, Hook, Hampshire
Mr. & Mrs. A. N. Cox, Upper Beeding, West Sussex
Caption Competition
The writer of the best caption for this photograph will receive a super Southdown Sheep Society prize. Entries to the office please!
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Congratulations to D. Johnson of West Sussex who has won a mouse mat for the winning entry in the last caption competition, which was:
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| “What do you mean, ‘Have I got corns’?” |
The Newsletter is edited by: Tim Walker. Send your news and articles c/o The Secretary or E-mail direct to: juliaandtim@tiscali.co.uk