2005 REPORT
by Judith Cockerill

At the time of writing this report, 2005 is drawing to a close and we can look back on another year of enjoyable club activities and successes at shows.

Our year began in January with an invitation to a social evening near Evesham by courtesy of the South Midland Charolais Club for darts and skittles. For those able to attend a very enjoyable time was had by all, with plenty of friendly rivalry going on between the various breeds.

At the beginning of March, our club held its Annual Dinner at the King Charles Restaurant, Worcester. Our speaker was Robin Levin, an Agronomist and Crop Assurance Advisor (to list but two of his talents), who entertained us wonderfully well with his anecdotes. Yet another fantastic meal and successful evening, well attended by members and friends.

At the end of April an Open Quiz was held at Warwickshire College of Agriculture, a fun evening, but one when you suddenly realise, you don’t know half of what you thought you did!!

Show season was then soon upon us and apart from the Simmental Breed in general, winning at many of the shows, our own club members had their fair share of success, with a number of breed and interbreed successes.

In September, we had a visit to Chester-Masters Organic Farm in Wiltshire. Unfortunately, the weather was awful that day with heavy rain and not good for those who drove on the motorway. However, despite the weather, it was a very interesting morning, members being shown an alternative way of farming, plus seeing a very well stocked Farm Shop, supplied by the farm itself. Thanks must go to the Farm Manager, John Newman, for taking time to show members around. Afterwards members were invited to a post farm walk barbecue by kind invitation of David and Margaret Bush.

John Rixton with some of his herd

At the beginning of October, we were invited to a farm walk and barbecue at Lopemede Farm, Thame, Oxon, by John and Ellen Rixon. We were shown round an all grass farm with very impressive buildings. The farm carries 180 cows and a large flock of mule ewes. The cows are nearly all Pedigree or pure Simmental, with a few cross-bred Simmental, these are all put to Pedigree Simmental bulls, 6 stock bulls and a new junior, recently acquired. A few cows are A.I’d. The herd is run very much on a commercial basis, but is exceedingly well managed by two very enthusiastic breeders. The barbecue had been wonderfully organised and everyone agreed a lot of trouble had been expended on making us all so welcome.

Captive Audience

We had the club herd competition results, which had been judged by Roy Kinnish, a Blonde d’Aquitaine breeder (but we won’t hold that against him!) from Bridgenorth. Roy had stepped in at very short notice to do the judging and we are very grateful to him for undertaking the task, especially as he had me as chauffeur for two of the trips and I’m not noted for my sense of direction, resulting in one or two detours!

The herd results are as follows:-

Large Herd: Boddington Estates (Sterling)

Medium Herd: Peter Burgess (Tilbrook)

Small Herd: Judith Cockerill (Farnborough)

The Shebdon Award for Special Achievement: Vingegaard Texas (the stock bull with the most outstanding locomotion and correctness of legs) jointly owned by K H Evans & Son and Booth & Bell.

We also held our belated AGM, the Officers are as follows;

Chairman: Judith Cockerill
Vice Chairman: Matt Harris
Treasurer: John Fellowes
Secretary: Sam Evans

Finally, congratulations to all our members for their show and sale successes and hope we can achieve even greater things in 2006. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those members who have helped me over the last twelve months, their support has been invaluable and greatly appreciated. I would like to include in those thanks the staff in the Society office.

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