Worcester Sale April 12 th 2008

The sale of British Blonde cattle took place at its new venue Worcester Mart on Saturday 12 th April under the expertise of auctioneer Clive Rhodes from McCartney’s.

The Hackleton herd swept the board with Overall Champion and top price seen for Hackleton Achiever (pictured above).Achiever by name and achiever by nature, this strong bull born 02/11/05 weighed in at 1240kgs out of Hackleton Serena sired by Hadley Hank. Owned by Mrs J Smith and shown by Mr N Smith of Hackleton Farm, Northampton, proud of his EBV’s and his success in the show ring sold to Messer’s HJ & BJ Read & Sons from Bromyard who own the Edvin herd for £3780.

Second top price of the day was bid for Hackleton Blenheim a, well muscled bullborn 04/10/2006 and weighing 835kgs. This eighteen month old bull out of the same stable as the champion won his class for autumn 2006 bulls. Out of Hackleton Rosa sired by Whistley Dollar this second Hackleton bull of the day was sold to Mr A Turner from Hahon, Derbyshire for £3675.

Reserve Champion was Kinaston Arno born 05/12/05 weighing in at 990kgs. This strong bull from the Kinnaston herd owned by Mr R Kinnish from Bridgenorth, Shropshire was bought by Messer’s DJ & HM Morgan from Peterchurch, Hereford for £2100.

Champion female Doncombe Bayadere born 21/11/2006 out of Doncombe Vashti and sired by Rodleigh Voyageur owned and shown by Mr D Knight from Bristol was sold to Messer’s Phillips of Bockleton Farm,Tenbury Wells.

Top priced female of the day was Withybrook Sweetheart with calf at foot. Withybrook Sweetheart born 20/04/01 out of Brownhill Grace and sired by Burfield Peregrine owned again by Mrs J Smith and shown by Mr N Smith from the Hackleton herd, Northampton sold to Messer’s Phillips of Bockleton Farm Tenbury Wells for £2047.50p.

Eight of the cattle sold at this new venue were sold to local farms.

The Blonde society would like to thank Mr S Feehan from A.B.P for judging the showing classes and Mr Gerald Shearing of Shearing Plough Livestock supplies for his generous sponsorship of this new sale at Worcester.

A large turn out was achieved through the support of society members and the interest from the farming fraternity. Interest in the breed and society proves to grow year on year and we look forward to building on this interest and taking the society and breed forward into a widening market.

16 bulls average price £2418.28
9 females average price £1211.00

Blondes ‘Spring’ into Action at their Annual Spring show and Sale.

There was a packed house last Saturday at Dungannon Mart for the NI Blonde Cattle clubs Annual Spring Show and Sale. The Sale was once again sponsored by Northern Bank and was a great success with almost all bulls and Females finding new homes.

Judging was in the capable hands of Mr Jimmy Ryan, Ballycraddock, Co. Waterford who awarded the Supreme Overall Champion to a stylish young bull called ‘Islandhill Barney’ (pictured above) from the herd of Mr Paul Gribbin and family, Toome bridge. This November 06 bull, sired by Glenvale Tarzan, showed tremendous style and conformation and was later purchased at the 2nd best bull price of £2520 by Keith Tubman, Aughnacloy.

Female Champion and Reserve overall Champion went to Mr William McConnell from Cookstown for a three-year-old maiden in-calf heifer. ‘Magheraglass Amy’ who was sired by Parati, was purchased by Mr. Richard Black, Artigavon, for top female and overall joint top price of £2730.

Also selling at £2730 was a 15 th month old bull from R & J Mowbray’s, Droit herd. Glenvale Campbell bred by David Thompson, Dungiven, was sired by Druk Lance, and was purchased by Mr W.J McNeill, Coleraine. Other top prices of £2100 went to Farlough Benny, from Kenny Archer, Cromkill Bill, from R&N McBride and Hillhead Bobby, from M.R Rodgers and son. The Silverwood herd of Norman McKnight also sold a stylish young 13month old bull, Silverwood Colly for £1995. There was steady trade in the female section with Drumraymond Cate an April 07 heifer from H&S Griffin, taking second best female price of £1575 and Colin Todd, Pinehill Blondes who sold his Heifer Pinehill Bethany for £1470.

Sale averages
Bulls averaged £2126.25. Females averaged £1395.00.

The NI Blonde cattle club would like to express it thanks once again to the ‘Northern Bank’ for sponsoring their annual Spring Show and Sale. Mr Jimmy Ryan, Brallycraddock, Co. Waterford for judging the show, and also to Dungannon farmers mart and anyone else who helped in any way.

The Spring show and sale took place at Borderway Mart, Carlisle on March 7th 2008 sponsored by Natwest Bank.

Topping the sale was Hillhead Brilliant (pictured right) weighing at 937kgs at 20 months old sired by Palace out of Glassdrummond Lucy from The Hillhead herd bred by M Rodgers of Co. Down, Northern Ireland sold at £5565.00 to George Hamilton from Ramrig Farm, Duns, Berwickshire who owns the Ramrig herd.

Second highest bid of £5250.00 was for Hallfield Bonzo sired by Easterton Tsar out of Hallfield Stella weighing 1030kgs at 23 months old. This homebred bull came from P Weightman & Sons from Hallfield Farm, Co.Durham home to the Hallfied herd. Hallfield Bonzo was purchased by WJ Scott of Low Leam Farm, Hexham.

Mr And Mrs Ian Calderbank from Maldon, Essex sold their bull Blackwater Beachboy sired by Nielson out of homebred Blackwater Primrose to WH Barker, of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire for £5250.00 weighing 866kgs.

Reserve overall champion Rayneside Brett owned by L & PA Haygarth from Kelleth, Penrith weighing 900kgs sold to top bidder R J Mowbray from Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland for £5040, sired by Easterton Rowan out of homebred Rayneside Lilly.

David Knight and Sue Cavilla were proud owners to see Doncombe Bucephalus (pictured right) take the senior male champion and overall male champion awards. This well deserving bull from the Doncombe herd, Bristol was purchased for £3675.00 by T L & E M Davies & Sons from Presteigne, Powys.

Title for top priced heifer of the day was shared by Dalton Betty and Whitefield Candy. Both these fine heifers sold to the highest bidders for £2100. Dalton Betty, a fourteen month old maiden heifer out of Brownhill Uno sired by Cromkill Sandy owned by John Langhorn of Cumbria who owns the Dalton herd won 1 st prize at the Great Yorkshire show and second prize at the Royal Highland show in 2007. This heifer was sold to R B Atkinson of Newton Bewley , Cleveland.

Sharing the title for the highest priced heifer was the Reserve Blonde Babe Champion Whitefield Candy owned by Mr E Mutch from Whitefield House, Banff. This ten month old junior maiden heifer was sired by Ivaniskey Vincent out of Whitefield Unique. Mr K Archer from Dungannon, County Tyrone is the proud owner of this fine animal and will be taking her home to join his Farlough herd.

Mr E Mutch was presented with the ‘Isabelle Mason’ Memorial Perpetual Trophy for the ‘Best turned out animal for sale’, this compitition was judged by Mr T Mason who also very kindly presented the cups for the show classes prior to the sale.

Blonde Babe Female Champion Penyghent Betty (pictured below) owned by Mr & Mrs Bradley from Litton, Skipton sold to the highest bidder R B Atkinson for £1890 who had previously bought Dalton Betty.

Attendance was up by both members and non members alike.

Averages
12 Senior Bulls £2,423.75
11 Junior Bulls £3531.82 23 Bulls £2,953.70
6 Senior unserved heifers £1715.00
5 Junior unserved heifers £1396.50 11 Heifers £1822.50
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