Scottish Club spring news 2019

A very warm welcome to all club members and prospective members. We do hope to see you at some of the social events this year. Our members are very sociable!

Hopefully with the much-improved Spring weather this year, the calving and lambing have been much easier, and you are now ready to think about the Summer programme below.

Competition time

Now that the SBSC Herds Competition is well established, we look forward to a good entry for your judge for 2019, Ian Park. Judging will take place at the end of August beginning of September. Please note the change in the 2-year-old heifer class.

Classes
Stock Bull
Cow with calf at foot
2-yr-old heifer born in 2017 with calf at foot
2-yr-old heifer born in 2017 and in calf
Yearling heifer born in 2018
Yearling bull born in 2018
Heifer calf born in 2019
Bull calf born in 2019

Rules
£10 entry fee per herd
£5 entry fee for any additional classes entered
Only 1 animal per class can be entered
Only Registered Pedigree Cattle in Scotland can be entered due to geographical limitations

There will be three sections, ie, Small, Medium and Large Herds. These will be sorted out once official entries are completed to make the sections approximately the same size. (This is only applicable to the actual herd.)

At this stage, we wish you to commit to entering the competition and entries will close on Friday 14 June 2019. Thereafter official entry forms will be sent out.

Changes to the Summer Points Competition

We have been very fortunate to be given £250 sponsorship by C & D Auction Marts (Thomson, Roddick & Laurie) for this competition. After much discussion at the last committee meeting it was unanimously agreed that the money would be used to sponsor the Champion Beef Shorthorn animal at five selected shows throughout Scotland.

The following rules were drawn up:

• Only applicable to shows with Beef Shorthorn classes

• The five shows eligible will be the ones with the highest number of exhibitors based on the previous year. Therefore, the shows eligible for sponsorship for 2019 are as follows: Dumfries, Grantown-on-Spey, Orkney County, Stirling and Turiff

Please note: The more Beef Shorthorn Exhibitors you can get at your show this year, the better chance you have of getting this sponsorship next year.

The Scottish Beef Event (30 May 2019)

Venue: North Bethenie Farm, Oldmeldrum, Aberdeen AB51 0AN

The Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society has taken a stand at this event and it will be manned by both SBSC committee members and some members from Council. There will be plenty of people on hand to answer queries or just have a chat re our breed plus a cup of tea/ coffee. We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.

The Royal Highland Show (20-23 June)

Beef Shorthorn judging will be on Thursday 20 June with the Society BBQ held in the evening at the Shorthorn stand.

The Scottish Club BBQ will be held on the evening of Saturday 22 June also in the Shorthorn stand. Tickets will initially be available to Scottish Club members only but will be offered  to wider society members nearer the time.

2019 Day Visit (Sunday 28 July)

We’re delighted to announce that John and Matthew Thomson, Shawhill and George Irving, Mountbenger have kindly agreed to host the day. Exact arrangements are still in the making but I’m sure it will be a great day out with some excellent cattle on view at both venues.

2019 Weekend Away (Friday 20- Monday 23 September)

The weekend away to Southern Ireland turned out to be popular and we have only a couple of rooms still available for this trip. We are staying in the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis and the deal is 3 nights B&B plus 1 evening meal: double/ twin room at £299 per room, ie, per two people sharing, or single room at £249. There is a £100 deposit per person on booking.

We will definitely be visiting Rowanburnberry, Creaga, Caramba, Bushy Park and Tintrum herds, but the final details will not be available until after the Royal Highland Show where I will be meeting with some of these guys. It is everyone’s responsibility to get to Ennis but once there Shane Brigdale (Rowanberry) will be organising a bus to get from farm to farm and the bill for this will be divided up among us, the visitors.

And finally

Any reader who would like to become a member of the Scottish Beef Shorthorn Club or has any queries please get in touch with Rosemary, our Secretary.