The second annual cafl wintering competition held at Hexham Mart last week drew a total of 69 entries from YFC club members in the area, with the aim being to achieve the maximum profit from purchase last autumn to sale this spring.
Collecting the award for the top gross profit was Philip Ogle who bought his British Blue cross steer for £570 last autumn and sold for £870 last week, leaving him with £300 in his pocket. His steer was bought from Messrs Tailford, Beacon Rigg.
Second best profit was earned by Kevin Ridley with the champion beast from the pre-sale show under judge John Richardson, Ghyll House. This one was another British Blue cross steer, this time bred at High Edges Green by David Swallow. This was bought for £800 and sold for £1080.
Reserve champion in the pre-sale show was Jamie Dixon of Westacres, while the best beast of the opposite sex to the champion was a Limousin cross heifer from Judith Ward, Haltwhistle. This one was bred by Graham Robson, Bellingham, and having been bought for £730 and sold for £940 left a profit of £210.
A great event to encourage young farmers-as they purchase calves in autumn sales and sell them at this sale with prizes in the show classes the evening before and a trophy and £100 prize for the young farmer whose calf shows the best margin from buying to selling (a good show of cattle- Louise Todd purchased the Champion)
Well done Jonathan for publicising this on your blog the young farmers are our future and need encouraging-it would be good to see you at the event next year with your laptop.
is it really a good thing to encourage yfs to buy these animals and pump feeding in to them then sell for next to no proffit. would it not be better to cap the purchase price and encourage them to see the true potential in lesser stock and actually make some money on the animals
TGFI, that's a valid point and I must say I'd rather they were rewarded for earning the most net profit once all their costs had been taken into account rather than a gross profit which doesn't account for the feed, vet and med and other costs involved in rearing cattle. It would take a bit more work and rely on the honesty of the participants, but it might give them a fuller understanding of the business.
it is good that all the young farmers participating understood the competition guidelines. They are encouraged to keep their production costs for their own benefit-in this case the positives of this competition far out weigh the negatives, and all the young farmers gained good experience for purchasing,showing and selling livestock.
i do agree that any event like this is a great way to gain experience for yfs i just feel that if these participants are the future of farming then they must not be introduced to the false economy of buying show cattle. lets see them buy true comercials that are the backbone of any herd. finnishers are getting old just as quick as the store producer and it would be nice to see more events like this put on but with run of the mill cattle that they can really turn around and make £s on. i love the show ring as much as anyone else but the true pride in production is going to market and leaving with the top average ppkg not just one belter and a few scrags who never grew due to a lack of milk. this is something that i see all the time and is caused by people keeping more and more muscled replacement hfrs desperate for a show champ.lets get events going that encourage yfs to show and buy but also understand that one swallow aint the summer