Now that everything has calmed down after a brilliant few weeks of the World Angus Forum, we’re getting back in to business as usual for the Society and reflecting on what was a wonderful time spent celebrating our great breed here in its original home, the UK and Ireland.
We’d like to start this week’s Friday update by extending our gratitude to everyone involved in making the World Angus Forum the success it was, from our home-based members and the international delegates who travelled from 23 countries around the world to take part, to the organising committee, sponsors, speakers and the herd owners across the length and breadth of the UK. Without your input, the event would not have been the exciting and interesting celebration that it truly was. From everyone at the Society, thank you! The bags under our eyes are full of terrific memories of a fantastic event that’ll stay with us for a very long time.
We’re now getting back into the swing of things in what’s been another busy week. Here’s your Friday update from the Society:
World Angus Forum:
The final weekend of the World Angus Forum kicked off on Saturday 1st July with a trip to Glamis Castle for the unveiling of a memorial stone dedicated to Hugh Watson, one of the founding breeders of our breed. The bronze plaque was expertly sculpted by the very talented Roddy Mathieson, to whom we extend our greatest appreciation for the magnificent job done on a piece of work with such meaning to everyone involved with the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society. We then proceeded to the Idvies Herd where we were welcomed with open arms on farm for another great show of cattle, before heading to Society president Alex Sanger’s Rosemount Herd where we saw a live technical display of heat detection collars, along with the opportunity to see AI from inside the cows using AI probes with cameras attached. We also had a good old knees-up in the cattle shed in the evening! A big thank you to everyone involved!
On Sunday 2nd July, after a great morning visit to Stirling Mart for a historical display, we made our way to Netherton Farm for the finale event of this year’s World Angus Forum where the delegates were treated to a tour of the Netherton and HW Angus herds before a brilliant farewell dinner, along with the announcement of the results of the youth competition which had been going on throughout the course of the Forum.
We’d like to congratulate all participants in the competition from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and our home teams here from the UK and Ireland – the youngsters participated excellently in all events and the future for our breed is certainly looking bright. The overall winning team (pictured above) was New Zealand Toa, consisting of Marie Timberley, Patrick Crawshaw, Emma Pollitt and Amy Hoogenboom. The team performed excellently throughout, winning the public speaking and ringcraft sections, while finishing second in agri-sports and third in carcase grading/butchery and dressing. Our UK and Ireland teams did us extremely proud throughout the competition, competing very well in all events and winning some individual events in the process. From our Doddies team consisting of Calum Smith, Ruth Perry, Gemma Wark and Shane Healy and our Hummlies team of Andrew Adam, John McCulloch, Hannah Baldwin and Brandon Brockett, there were individual first places for John McCulloch and Hannah Baldwin in the beef and horse stockjudging respectively. The individual best performer was Travis Hunter of team Canada Believe who picked up an impressive number of points in the team building, agri-sports, ringcraft and public speaking activities. A huge well done to all involved!
Photography:
Over the past few weeks we’ve accumulated a wealth of excellent photography from many of the events that’ve been included as part of the World Angus Forum and we’re excited to be able to share that with you all over the coming weeks. There is also an opportunity to purchase photography for personal use. You can view the photography that is available at: http://www.macgregorphotography.com/galleries/. Make sure to keep your eye on our Facebook page and website as we’ll be sharing more and more photography in the near future.
Show news:
The Omagh Show took place from 30th June to 1st July and the Aberdeen-Angus champion went to Coolermoney Rocco, owned by Adrian and Graeme Park. The Aberdeen-Angus Breed Champion from the Royal Norfolk Show was Robbie Moore’s heifer Fenland Polly Prize 5006 (born 20.05.16).
There’s a busy schedule of show’s coming up over the next few weeks, including the Echt Show tomorrow before the Great Yorkshire Show from 11th – 13th July which we look forward to bringing you results from next week.
Other news:
In case you missed it yesterday, we informed you of the launch of a new book written by Eddie Gillanders of the North East Aberdeen-Angus club which recounts the magnificent history of the breed. For more information about the book and how you can get your hands on a copy, visit: http://www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/the-north-east-aberdeen-angus-club-publishes-a-new-history-of-the-aberdeen-angus-breed/.
We’re busy in the office catching up with registrations and other administrative work now the Forum has come to a close. A backlog with registrations is the norm at this time of year so this is taking priority at present, and we anticipate a quick turnaround with increased hours being invested in to the office and we’re hoping to be fully up to date with everything from that end in a quick timescale.
Also at the top of the agenda is the employment of a new CEO for the Society. We will be publishing a survey in the near future which will be distributed to members to gauge your ideas and help mould any decision made on the appointment of a new CEO, so please do participate as your opinions on this matter will be of great value to the Society.
This next week sees us continuing with the above plus meetings on our Feed Efficiency projects and attending the Royal Yorkshire Show. If you’re at the Royal Yorkshire Show, please stop by for a coffee and a chat!
From all at the Society, here’s to a great weekend.