Royal Welsh 2015: Newcomers scoop beef interbreed with Limousin heifer
Breed newcomers Chris and Vicky White clinched their first supreme championship with their homebred heifer Frogmore Helen.
Farm management consultant Chris, and his wife Vicky, set up their Frogmore Limousin herd just four years ago, after buying a small holding in Moreton-on-Marsh, Gloucestershire. In a short time they’ve come a long way.
Homebred Helen won reserve interbreed junior championship at last year’s show but went one better this year. She’s had a successful season so far, scooping the reserve breed championship at Devon County Show and Three Counties.
Sired by Wildoge Cerberus she is out of Ironstone Frangelica and is in-calf to Goldies Comet, due in December.
In reserve, judge Ronald Mackie tapped out the three-year-old Welsh Black bull Graig-Goch Berwyn 75th from breed stalwart Ken Ellis and his son Dafydd, from Tywyn, Meirionnydd.
It was the second time the Ellis family has taken the runner up prize at the Royal Welsh. They also won reserve interbreed five years ago with a homebred heifer.
Berwyn was purchased as an eight-month-old calf from breeder Emyr Jones of the Graig-Goch herd and is currently being used as a stock bull within the Ellis’ Ynysfor herd of 12 pedigree cows. Sired by Ysguboriau Brenin he is out of Graig-Goch Marian 30th.
He won second in his class at the show last year but it was his first outing this year. He next heads to Talybont and Ceredigion shows.
Commenting on his selection Mr Mackie, who runs a commercial herd of 80 cows and 70 heifers in Crieff, Perthshire, said: “I thought the champion had the most breed character. She walked very well and had good fleshing qualities right along her top line.”