Quality not quantity for North East YDP workshop

Quality not quantity was the name of the game at the North of England workshop. Unfortunately, several participants couldn’t make the day but they missed out on real treat. Although on the other end of the scale, one young lady travelled all the way from Surrey to join us for the day, she was so keen to join the YDP and this was the only workshop she could make it too!

Enthusiasm definitely wasn’t lacking and the atmosphere was great, as most of the youngsters show against each other throughout the year, and a little friendly competition never goes a miss. The workshop was held at Tree Bridge Farm, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough by kind permission of David and Penny Evans. This was the first time they had hosted a workshop themselves, although David had been involved last year, and they did an excellent job! David had secured the services of well known Northern Prime Stock shower, Eileen Wilson and Duncan McLaren, whose name speaks volumes in the world of Angus and now Duncan is making his mark with Charolais.

A warm welcome started the day off nicely with coffee and homemade  brownies and  cookies made by Tor and Hen Evans.  People keep laughing as I always seem to mention food in the workshop reports but it is working a treat as there always seems to be some new goodies waiting for me at the next one! It didn’t go unnoticed by Penny Evans that whenever she saw me I was eating something! I would just like to point out that food is not compulsory for the hosts to provide, the participants are suppose to bring their own lunch.

Halter making with Duncan McLaren

The participants were split into groups on age and the first group made halters with Duncan. He had two wonderful bits of equipment that I hadn’t seen at any of the other demonstrations, a piece of wood and a glove!! These were so that the ends of the halter could be melted and rolled to make the joins very neat. Duncan did say he had found the wood worked better than what his father used to use which was the top of the Rayburn!! Juliet Swires and I watched intently to see if we could pick up the skill, and I’ve nearly got it, yes I know we hear that after every workshop!

The older group were taken by David and Eileen where they were shown how to wash and blow the cattle. The groups swapped around and more cattle were washed and halters made. All stopped for lunch where David and Penny had fired up the BBQ and we were all treated to some wonderful Angus Burgers and Sausages (yeap food again!) We all sat on the lawn in the pleasant sunshine and all matter of things were discussed, those of you that were there will know the hilarity of some of the subjects!!

It's all in the feed........

After lunch, David had obtained some feed samples from Farmway, we were all given a piece of paper to guess what each one was. Big discussions ensued and it turned out to be a really informative exercise in more ways than one.

Keeping an eye on the lines.......

The afternoon practical sessions started with clipping. As some had clipped before, they were given a beast to clip by themselves with Duncan giving some useful advice. Eileen did a demonstration for those that hadn’t any previous clipping experience. With Eileen coming from a commercial background it was really good to see how she clips and I picked up a few tips. She ran through which points of the animal to emphasise and which to hide and then all had a go with heads, tops and tails. David then demonstrated how to prepare an animal for the ring and the participants were able to prepare their own beast.

For the Explaining EBV’s talk, David had printed off the figures for the three show bulls that we had used for the practical sessions. This again sparked a great discussion which everyone took part in and put forward some interesting points.  Being able to see the bulls in the flesh alongside their figures was a great way to explain them.

Let the competition begin!

The afternoon ended with the ring craft session, this was where the friendly rivalry came into play! Three of the four animals used for this had been washed, clipped and ‘turned out’ during the day and the young lady with the fourth, rather dirty looking bull was very worried at how this would look in the pictures! Although I don’t think she needs to worry about the dirty back end as I have a lovely picture of her moving his feet with the end of a golf club!

Yet again another fabulous workshop, thanks to David and Penny Evans and family, Eileen Wilson, Duncan McLaren and Juliet Swires for the entertaining conversations.

It has occurred to me while writing these reports that I always say I’ve learnt a few things and I definitely have.  Over the last few months I have been lucky enough to see the tricks of the trade from some of the country’s top stockmen and women, but I would just like to say that like the halters, it’s all going to take a bit of time to put theory into practise so don’t be expecting too much from me just yet!!