The Inaugural Members Roadshow
Over 60 Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society members travelled from as far afield as Angus, Ceredigion and Oxfordshire to our inaugural Roadshow, staged in Cumbria in June, and kindly hosted by Paul Coates at Barrockend Farm, Carlisle.
Members of the Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society attending the inaugural Members Roadshow
The event was open to all members and judges and attracted breeders of wide ranging of experience - from those starting out to the very accomplished.
The day featured a series of workshops covering performance recording and scanning led by Pedigree Cattle Service’s Barbara Webster and linear classification by Holstein UK’s Meurig James. SAC’s Helen Carty led a discussion on health including society sale requirements and the importance of health schemes whilst Morrisons’ Jodie Bolland provided an update of the supermarket’s Shorthorn Beef scheme.
We launched the Roadshow in order to create a dialogue with our members over various areas of the Society’s activities that impact on the breed’s development. The workshops were designed to be informative on how activities such as performance recording and linear classification are currently working and how they influence the breed. The event was also designed to encourage discussion on any contentious points and to take comments and ideas back to relevant committees. We also staged a member Question and Answer session towards the end of the workshops.
Each workshop was managed by a Director and each group was also accompanied and facilitated by a Director. Judges on the Society’s panel are also being asked to attend one Roadshow in three years, again to have a two-way conversation on breed characteristics and type.
The day closed with a walk through the Morrison’s 250-head pedigree Barwood herd managed by Paul Coates. A field of two-year-old calved down heifers certainly caught the eye as did the cows with calves at foot.
Our thanks to Paul Coates and his team for providing a superb venue and facilitating all the workshops, to Morrisons for the herd visit as well and to all the Directors who managed the workshops.
The tremendous turnout and subsequent feedback reflected members’ appreciation for such an event and its content. We are planning for the Roadshow to become an annual event staged in different parts of the country.
BSCS president, Sally Horrell
“The Roadshow proved to be a really useful day providing us with a lot of practical information to take back home. We learnt more about what to look out for when buying in cattle in terms of health risk levels and vaccination status. We are now more aware of what happens to the scanning data towards building an EBV, we were reminded of the main features of linear assessment and it was good to have a refresher on Morrisons scheme. Finally, it was nice to have the opportunity to walk around the Barwood herd see progeny by our own sires as well as having some quality time to catch up with other members. We’re already looking forward to next year’s Roadshow.”
Tracy Severn, Halifax