We’ve had a great week of news and activity within the Society in the past seven days, with lots of positive stories around our breed overseas and, in particular, our brilliant Youth Development Programme. Here is your weekly round-up to make sure nothing has slipped below your radar:
World Angus Forum:
As mentioned earlier in the week, we’ve made all the presentation documents from the Technical Conference readily available on our website for download. The ‘From consumption to conception’ two-day conference was awash with valuable information and sessions from some of the leaders within the beef production industry, so it is great to make this information available for those who weren’t able to attend. The documents can be viewed and downloaded at: http://www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk/events/world-angus-forum-2017/technical-conference-presentation-documents/
Show news:
We got results from the Black Isle and the Keith Shows over the last week, where the cattle on display were very impressive. At the Keith Show, the Aberdeen-Angus Champion went to Tonley Princess of Mark Wattie, Tonley, while the reserve on the day was Mosstonmuir Ingrid from Graham Willox. At the Black Isle, the Champion was Ballindalloch Earl while reserve went to Weston Princess Chartereuse of Donald Rankin.
The Tullamore Show will take place across the water in Ireland over the weekend with around 60,000 attendees set to make their way to the showground in Co. Offaly, where the 2016 Aberdeen-Angus champion was Wedderlie Blackbox of Albert De Cogan. We look forward to bringing you a full report from this year’s show early next week.
Youth Development Programme (YDP):
We’ve been looking a little deeper into our Youth Development Programme in the past month to gain some better insight in to what goes on within the programme to equip our youngsters for their future careers, whether that be in this industry or not.
Firstly, there was a couple of YDP workshops in Ireland over the last couple of weeks, taking place in Mohill with Mac Crowe and Kathryn Bradshaw and in Cork with John and Kate Tait. A big thank you is extended to Mac, Kathryn, John and Kate for their hospitality, along with all the trainers from the workshops who are so important to help us nourish the skills of our young people. 17 year old Leah Mullen took part in the Mohill workshop and was kind enough to take the time to prepare a piece which provided us with details of what went on during the day. If you never caught it the first time, you can read Leah’s written account at: http://www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk/youth-development/view/54. Here are a selection of photographs from the workshops:
Last weekend, we also had workshops in the borders at Selkirk and Cornwall thanks to the Buccleuch Estate and the Laity Family. Rob and Leanne from Denvir Marketing who we’ve been working closely with lately decided to try their hand at the different activities involved in preparing cattle for shows and sales at the Selkirk workshop. Having no background in the world of cattle or farming, it was great to get their angle on the workshops, which you can read at: http://www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/denvir-does-ydp-selkirk-workshop-6th-august/.
This weekend will see more workshops taking place at Mosston Muir Farm and Clarence House Farm with Allan Rennie and Adrian & Penny Johnson respectively. We look forward to bringing you reports on both days in due course!
The Aberdeen-Angus overseas:
It was great to have our friends from all over the world with us here in the UK for the World Angus Forum, amongst whom was several delegates from Angus Australia. We were in touch with our friends from down-under recently to put together a great news piece about the Aberdeen-Angus breed in Australia, looking at everything from its history, to why it is so popular and what the future holds. A big thank you to Diana Wood, Libby Creek and Peter Parnell for helping pull the piece together – you can read it here: http://www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/the-aberdeen-angus-overseas-australia/
General news:
We informed you a couple of weeks ago that we were setting up a specific email address for members to get in touch with the Society about any matters that need addressing at Council or Management level. We’ve been working with the website developers to put this in place, and all members will be contacted now to be provided information on how to access this. We are sure everyone will agree that this will be a great method of ensuring all the most important Society matters are dealt with as effectively as possible.
Last weekend also saw the annual President’s visit to Castle of Mey where Alex Sanger was present with His Royal Highness Prince Charles to view the herd which was a brilliant weekend as always. A few months ago we brought you the news of the triplet heifers that arrived at Castle of Mey, and we can now give you an update on the trio! Two of the calves have been retained with their mother, while the other has been adopted by another cow.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whatever you’re getting up to!