South Devons top 2000gns
South Devons top 2000gns
By Jeremy Hunt
SIX animals made 2000gns and more when the South Devon Herd Book Society staged its first sale of 1998 with new society auctioneers Norton and Brooks-bank on the rostrum at the Livestock Centre, Exeter.
Buyers were selective but showed no reluctance to pay good prices for superior sires. And the breeds increasing popularity far from West Country pastures was evident in the spirited bidding that produced the days top price of 2650gns.
Travelling down from York-shire for the sale was Michael Farrand, livestock manager for W E Foers and Son, Wadworth, Doncaster, who, like several other breed devotees, took a strong fancy to Mr and Mrs Chris Smallwoods good bull Chapple Jumbo 1st.
This Apr 1996-bred entry is by the 1995 Bath and West Show supreme champion Billington Jumbo and out of a Winsor Ace dam. He was wintered out on grazing at 305m (1000ft) on the edge of Dartmoor and had achieved a 400-day-weight of 567kg, the breed average is 522kg. His Beef Value was 16.
Messrs Foers are establishing a new herd of 100 South Devon cattle.
But the liveliest trade came for the younger bulls with Peter Rowe out in front with a 2600gns call for his May 1996-bred Trewint Jubilee Junior 5th. Bred from his well-known herd at Liskeard, Cornwall, this son of Trewint Jubilee 11th had been running out all winter.
He came through with a Beef Value of 24 and stood second in his class under judge C J Edwards, Tavistock. Buyers were Mr S J and Mrs S A Franks, Yelverton, Devon.
Jubilee Junior 5th joined forces with herdmate Trewint Hector Junior 2nd, a son of Trewint Hector 6th, to take the reserve champion pairs title. Hector Junior 2nd had been reserve male champion at Liskeard Show last year and was another bull that was testament to the breeds hardiness, having been out-wintered. He made 2200gns to C E Caunter, Ipplepen, Newton Abbot.
The breed improvement group ASDIG, based at Eastleach, Cirencester, enjoyed a good day in the show ring, which culminated in the championship with Asdig Concorde 6th, a son of Grove Charlemagne 5th. He had a 400-day-weight of 599kg and a Beef Value of 22 and joins the Cornubia herd of R Woollacott, Mabe, Falmouth.
David and Mark Thomas, Launceston, Cornwall, collected a first prize with their well-bred, young polled bull Treguddick Landmark 9th, a son of the widely used homozygous polled bull CP Z Shorland Ashley. He is out of the herds successful Maisie family and went to Yelverton breedera A * and B E Cole.
David and Jane Hedgeman, who run the Nether Mynton herd at Wool, Dorset, reckoned Nether Mynton Damon was the best bull of their herds 1996 calf crop. He had fulfilled his early promise and was the first bull of the day to reach the 2000gns barrier.
A Feb 1996-bred bull, he has never been housed and enjoyed a good show season last summer, which included a third at the Royal Show. His dam is the noted prize winning cow Harton Corrinna 2nd and his sire is Erme Jambo 2nd. This heavyweight tipped the scales at just over 1t and was claimed by Bakershall Farm, Bures Suffolk.
AVERAGES: 15 bulls £1568 and one heifer £630. (Norton and Brooksbank.)
Strongly fancied, South Devon Chapple Jumbo 1st wintered 1000ft up on Dartmoor. It topped the societys show and sale at 2650gns.