Last day of the forum sees the British go shopping

Well the Forum is now over and for once I’m not sitting down late at night or early morning sending a report back and have realised that yesterday’s blog was wrong as I have put a day and a half’s worth of report in. But at 1.30 am after 13 days of touring maybe my mind wasn’t on the job – hopefully if there were any embarrassing spelling mistakes Chrissie fixed them!!

So my last report will do the last day and a bit of Wednesday which saw the Red Angus show being judged. Most people here would say that overall the standard of the Reds was better with less of a tail end. In the females it was the same result as we saw in the Futurity with Six Mile Red Angus winning with Soo Line Reserve with their outstanding two year old heifers. I have to apologies as I did not see the Male Championship in the bulls as we were touring the barns.

Before I mention the Black Angus show I have to mention that all the cattle were stalled in 6 big barns and they say if the cattle were tied side by side the line would be over 2 miles long which is just incredible. The exhibitors have really made an effort to present their cattle with some stalls decorated to the max with water fountains to stuffed bull heads on the walls.

Most of us really enjoyed touring the barns and meeting people and looking at their cattle, as not all cattle there were going to be in the show ring as many herds only had display animals there. Two American herds were present Express Ranches and Sinclair Cattle Company where we saw some of their top sellers of the past year. Over all their cattle were smaller than the Canadian ones.

Also on display were cattle from Dunlouise from Scotland with their Native cattle, they had three bulls on display and a couple of calves on other displays by their bulls. The Native cattle were well received by many over there. Yes they were small but very fleshy – maybe not the kind our commercial men would buy as they like bigger cattle but I have to say well done to the Souter family on their success over in America where they have some of the top volume selling Angus Bulls for semen sales.

Dunlouise cattle on display

Also on display was the World Forum Embryo Display which showed the cattle from around the world and as I said in the Bulletin the British cattle on display were by far the biggest and longest but still carried good fleshing ability there followed  for size by the Danish cattle.

The Junior Show which saw Black and Reds judged together was a real eye opener. To see children as young as 6 showing cattle was a  pleasure and you can see that the future over in Canada is bright with the large turnout of Junior members showing. The overall Champion was from Quinn Hamilton with a cow Belvin Lady Blossom 22′02 by O L G Battle Cry and Reserve going to Jaelayne Wilson with DMM Attraction 32U by DMM Posi-Traction 57P.

The Black Angus show with over 400 head of cattle started at 8 am and did not finish until after 6 pm. It was a real enjoy to watch as we saw each division championship being judged and listening to reasons from the judge after every class. In the Females I would say a lot of the ones that we might have picked were further down the class as they were just too big for the Judge today, he went for very feminine females and placed a lot of emphasis on the calf.

I thought the heifer calf classes were good but the yearling heifers in my opinion could have done with being less fit and a bit longer and bigger. In the older classes I picked out many cows you would love to have back home. The Champion Female was a real belter of a cow, though she maybe could have done with being a frame size bigger, she was a real quality animal and was shown by Soo Line Cattle Co who have had a real good couple of days in the show ring. Soo Line Annie K6271 is by Cudlobe Yellowstone 80M and in Reserve was a two year old heifer Bar E L Mangnolia 15T from Bar E L Angus by SAV 004 Density 4336.

Soo Line Annie

In the Bull Show we saw many good thick bulls. I thought the yearling classes were strong and if it was a show over in the UK they would have been well received at this age, although I’m not whether some would then keep growing on to make good selling bull at Stirling. The Bull Champion was a bull we saw at Hamilton Farms and all liked HF Tiger 5T by HF Kodiac 5R.

HF Tiger 5T

This bull was a real meat machine and his calves on show also did well. Reserve Champion was also the Reserve from the previous show – Eastondale Angus with Eastondale Break Away 32′07.

The British have been spending their money over here to bring in new genetics with Rull Angus from Claire and Edward Jones bringing in Belvin genetics, James Arnott, Coul, buying the Top Price Lot at the Sale, Jim Logan, Galawater, buying embryos from a good TC Stout daughter and John Elliot, Rawburn, buying a share in a classy female Cottage Creek 911J Tyra. John will also have bought more for  Bova Gen. I have bought more embryos from Miller Wilson and along with Gallawater bought the Semen Rights for the UK and Ireland of HF EL Tigre 28U who was Senior Yearling Champion and a full brother to Tiger the Overall Champion. I am sorry if others have bought and I have not mentioned them but these are the ones I know of at the moment.

This has been a wonderful experience and we have met so many fellow Angus Breeders from around the World, made many new friends and had a ball from start to finish. I would like to thank the Canadian Angus Association for such a wonderful Forum and all the volunteers who have made this the best ever Forum in many people’s eyes.

Now as we all start to pack our bags for the flight home I look forward to some work and a DIET we will all have some great memories of our time in Canada. Thanks to all who have texted me I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts from this trip.