WELSH CLUB REPORT CHAIRMANS REPORT 2010

I will start this year by talking about next year’s important dates. The Welsh Club Sale at Welshpool Market May 12th 2011 more about that later in my report.

In August, we will be hosting the First Welsh National Show. This will be held at the Pembrokeshire County Showgrounds on the 16th to 18th August 2011, to coincide with the Pembrokeshire County Show. It will be the Second largest show in Wales, and with prize money of at least £2,000, I hope as many people as possible will support this event. We had originally intended to hold The National Show at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, however the Royal Welsh Committee were unable to guarantee us the number of stalls that we would need. Pembrokeshire County Show are very keen to host our prestigious event. They will provide us with a marquee for hospitality at the side of the show ring, as well as having an extra large show ring, a separate shed for Simmentals, and will also erect an extra marquee at no extra cost should numbers exceed capacity. The Pembrokeshire County Showgrounds and the Welsh Simmental Club were very keen to host the National Show. However, the Simmental Council felt that August was the wrong time of year for them to hold the National Show. The Welsh club felt that the facilities available to us at the Pembrokeshire County Show were too good to miss, and so we decided to go ahead and hold a Welsh National Show. We hope that this will be the first of many to come. We look forward to seeing you all in August, and feel sure you will have a great time enjoying our wonderful Welsh Hospitality.

The past year has gone so quickly! Back to the Welsh Winter Fair of 2009. Over 26,000 people, mainly Farmers came to enjoy the event. Two superb cross bred cows and calves were on the stand, kindly loaned by Gerald and Margaret Parry from Abergavenny, and Robert and Kay Vincent from Carmarthenshire. Thank you, and thank you to all the members who helped on a very cold two days.

Our Christmas dinner 2009 in the Marina Hotel, Aberystwyth, went well with Steve Williams giving an after dinner speech about farming, and his interesting work as an auctioneer. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that a good day was had by all!
Our next event was the Perth Bull sales at Sterling in February. Welsh Club members the Jones Family (Banwy Herd) brought the Senior Champion titlewith Banwy Wonderboy back to Wales. Congratulations. Wonderboy later sold for 9,500 guineas to the Woods family (Popes Herd).

Our AGM was also held at the Marina Hotel in Aberystwyth in March.
Officials were elected as follows:
Chairman Nadia Gwynne
Vice Chairman Wynford Jones
Secretary Margaret Parry
Treasurer Aled Davies

I would like to take this opportunity, to thank Gethin Lloyd, for all his hard work for the club, during his time as Secretary. Thank you Gethin and Family.

In May the show season started with Cothi Bridge show. Congratulations to Brian, Kitty and Family for supreme Champion with Ben-nant Vera
Gethin and Enfys Lloyd took the reserve Champion with Woodhall Warren
Brian and Kitty also took the Interbreed title
Thank-you to Peter Burgess (Tilbrook Herd) for judging at the Show.

Also in May we held our First Club Sale, at the new market in Welshpool. Nick and I took Supreme Champion with Chestermann Wayward who later sold for 3,500 guineas. Congratulations to Dai Evans for taking the Reserve and Female Champion title with Ben nant Vanity.

Top price of the day was Reserve Male Champion Chestermann Wynchester who sold for 3,800 guineas. We had the camera crew from a Welsh Farming programme Cefn Gwlad, filming the show and sale. Thank you to Terry Ford (…Herd) for judging this event. Thanks also to all who supported this club event. It helped to raise lots of money, which we will use for prize money when we host our first Welsh National show in August 2011.

The Aberystwyth Show in June proved to be a lovely sunny day again. We all enjoyed our picnic, which has now become an annual event. Judge Rodger Birch was taken ill, so Anerin Francis kindly stepped in- thank you Anerian.

The club sends Roger and his Family our Best Wishes and are pleased to hear that you have made a full recovery. Results from the show are as follows:
Supreme Champion went to Dai Evans with Corskie Vixen, well done Dai.
Reserve champion going to Aled Davies with Hirwaun Alice

The Royal Welsh, which is now the largest agricultural show in Europe, with visitors from all over the world, was held in July. Thankfully, the weather was fine for most of the show. Our members were introduced to our new Secretary Neil Shand. We all wish him well in his new post.

Thank you to the judge, John Trafford. I hope you and your wife enjoyed our BBQ. The Welsh club members had success with Reserve Male Champion going to Banwy Avalanch 09 from the Jones Family. Reserve Female Champion to Pen wern Willow from Wyn Jenkins Da Iawn and Red Rosettes went to Ben nant Vera from Brian and Kitty Raymond also Ben nant Whitney

Congratulations to Dafydd Jones (Banwy Herd) for winning the Dyfed Trophy for Best Young Stockperson. Thank you to all club members who helped on the stand, and of course the BBQ. We had a bit of a smoke problem when we brought the BBQ inside the marquee because of the weather, but at least every one stayed dry on the outside! Thank you to Huw Davies and Merion Jones who cooked the food and all the other members who helped. (We are all available for Royal Wedding catering if required).
Congratulations to all Welsh members who attended shows too numerous to mention. Hopefully all successes will be included in the Review.

Next came August when Nick, myself and the boys hosted a visit from the Welsh Club members. We had help from our friends Heather, Tim and their son Mathew. Heather is the Queen of Desserts and made lots of them! I know they went down well, because so many people came back for seconds.

Also in August we had our Herd competition, the Judge was Joe Ede (Fole Herd ) Thank-you for giving your time and expertise. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Wales, and will come again soon. The results are as follows ……..
Thank-you to Winford and Joyce (Oakdale Herd) for hosting the presentation- the food was fantastic.
Congratulations to Wyn Jenkins (Pen wern Herd) for being voted Best Herd in Wales. Da iawn Wyn. This leads me nicely on to September when Wyn had his Reduction Sale in our local market,at Newcastle Emlyn. Wow what a day! Most Welsh Club members helped to wash all the cows and bed them down the day before and were all there again on Saturday to help brush the cows up in preparation for the sale. A big thank-you from Wyn for all your help- this really shows our great club spirit! The sale ring was heaving. Lots of people had to stand outside, but the weather was lovely and sunny. The sale was fantastic with the top price of 20,500 guineas and an excellent average price. The stock were a credit to Wyn and the club would like to wish him well. Sadly, Wyn had a stroke shortly afterwards. Simmental members and friends wish him all the best and a good recovery. We hope to see him in the shows next year.

In September we visited the Midhope herd. Thank you for taking the time to show us your herd. I was sorry to miss it, as I was not very well, but Nick said you had an excellent herd. Thank you also for the great hospitality. Congratulations to John val and Craig on their success in Sterling.

In October we had a club trip to the Beef Expo in Ireland. We arrived Thursday night. On Friday we went to the Bull Testing Staton at Tully where we saw some young bulls- sadly only one Simmental. We had a very interesting talk about the Irish Star System and their Data Base where information from birth to slaughter is collated. We were then treated to some excellent hospitality - thank you.

On Saturday to the Clonagh herd of Garret and Lynsey Behan. Thank you for showing us your Herd. They are a credit to you both - as the men were all admiring Banwy T Rex, the ladies were admiring your baby son. The baby is beautiful - congratulations. We then went on to Celtic Sires and the Anatrim herd. We were all very impressed with the cattle, the farm, and the hospitality. Thank you. I am sure these Sires will be in the lime light a lot in the future! We then attended the Gala Dinner where we were treated fantastically. I was not expecting the spectacular transformation of the Market. It really had the wow factor - carpets, candelabras, fantastic food and entertainment.
Sunday was the day of the show. Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! is all I can say!
I would highly recommend you to visit the 2012 Expo, and see for yourselves.

We missed out on a trip to see the Raceview Herd as we ran out of time, but we did see some of them at the Expo on Sunday where Peter and Family had great success when they took Supreme Champion. Congratulations - hopefully you will invite us again (Please!).

A very big thank you to Pedar Glennon Secretary of the Irish Simmental Society for looking after us so well, and helping to organize our trip. I hope you will give the Welsh Club the chance to return the hospitality. A great time was had by all.

In November came Carlisle, and Nick and I did very well with Chestermann Adam becoming Supreme Champion.

We had to postpone our calf show this year due to a mix up about pre-movement TB testing. We are hoping to rearrange the event for later in the New Year.

We would like to thank our main sponsor for supporting the Welsh Simmental Calf Show year on year and for increasing their sponsorship during these hard times. Thank you to Nigel and Delyth Scudamore from Bailey Farm Feeds. Thanks also to all our other sponsors - we really do appreciate it.

At the Welsh Winter Fair, we were informed that no cattle could be shown on the Society stand, so we decided to join force with the NBA and have space on their stand. It was a very, very cold two days, and Neil was snowed in up in Scotland. We showed photos of Simmental cattle, and did our best to make the stall inviting, but we had less than half the visitors of previous years (I know as I only made 50 cups of tea instead of the usual 200!).It would be nice to get back to normal next year and show ‘live’ cattle again, instead of the posters, as our good quality cattle always attract visitors and interest in the breed.

Our Welsh Young Members have again had many successes. Congratulations to all.

On to other Club news-Brian And Kitty Raymond (Ben nant Herd) Celebrated their Ruby Wedding Anniversary in November.

Angharad Davies has given Gethin and Enfys a lovely grandson

Also, Margaret, our Club Secretary, has had a grandson and her first granddaughter this year. The little boy, Oliver, has sadly been poorly, but is proving to be a little fighter, and our prayers and thoughts are with him and his family.

I would like to end my report by thanking all the members for their support, help and friendship over the past three years. This will be my last report as Chairman, as I have ‘done my stint’, and am handing over to Winford Jones. I am sure he will make a very good Chairman, as he has proved an excellent Vice-Chair. I have very much enjoyed my stint as Chairman, particularly the contact I have had with members, which has lead to lots of friendships that will continue.

I look forward to our next year of events,- hopefully it will be as successful as 2010. Wishing everyone a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year- “ Blwyddyn Newydd Dda I’r aelodau’r Clwb Simmental Cymru”.

2009 club report

2008 club report

2007 club report

2006 club report

2005 club report

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