South Devon February Newsletter 2019

SOUTH DEVON HERD BOOK SOCIETY Westpoint, Clyst St Mary, Exeter, EX5 1DJ. Tel: 01392 447494 Fax: 01392 447495

www.sdhbs.org.uk

info@sdhbs.org.uk

NEWS SHEET FEBRUARY 2019 Dear Member The last few forms are coming in for the Spring Show & Sale at Exeter on Wednesday 27th March, and we shall know exact numbers entered in a few days’ time. The next full newsletter will be sent to you with the AGM Booklet.

In the meantime, enjoy this abbreviated version! Best wishes, Caroline *** If you would like accommodation at the Devon Hotel, Exeter, on the night of the AGM and before the Sale, please let us know as soon as you can. We have block-booked a number of rooms and are allocating them on a first-come, firstserved basis. Please pay the hotel, £88 per room only. *** The AGM Dinner, £27 pp, also requires booking with us please, and the menu is as follows: Starter Prawn & Smoked Salmon Platter served on a bed of crisp salad leaves with Marie Rose sauce or

Chicken Liver Parfait with apple chutney & warm brioche Main course Roast Beef or Roast Turkey from the Carvery With seasonal vegetables & potatoes Dessert White Chocolate & Strawberry Tart or Fresh Fruit Salad Freshly brewed filter 1 Coffee & Mints

AUCTION OF PROMISES Our main fund-raising event which takes place every other year will be held immediately following the Annual General Meeting at the Devon Hotel, Exeter. In previous years our members have very kindly donated gifts and promises that have been successfully auctioned to raise around £4,000.

It would be great to break a new record this time – but we do need your help to do so! If you have anything you might like to gift for auction we would love to hear from you – maybe an activity, a holiday, a pub meal voucher, or something from your farm. Let your imagine wonder!

We will produce an Auction catalogue prior to the event which will be sent to all members and, even if you are unable to attend on the evening, you can still use our postal bid system.

We look forward to hearing from you with your wonderful promises!

If you are thinking of exhibiting at the National Show this year which will be held at the Royal Welsh between 22nd and 25th July, please look out for the Show Schedule which is being finalized at the moment. If you do not receive one please follow the Royal Welsh website, or contact the Livestock office on 01982 554403/554404/554413, or e-mail livestock@rwas.co.uk.

We still have plenty of work to do to raise sponsorship for the Show, and please, if you have any ideas of who might be interested in this year’s show let us know as soon as you can.

Enclosed is an amended version of the AHDB Carcase Traits launch leaflet.

Please discard the previous leaflet sent to you a few weeks ago – there’s one misleading bit of information!

In order for a bull to have these new EBVs available, their calves must have sire details recorded on their BCMS passports. Without this information, any data relating to the bull is meaningless because his slaughtered progeny cannot be identified.

PLEASE ensure you put the bull’s ID on your BCMS passport application!

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I recently visited Kendal Market and met with North West Auctions and the NBA to discuss arrangements for our Performance Championships this May 23rd. Assuming that most of you will not know the market, may I say that it has excellent facilities which will suit us nicely for the Championships. We will have our own dedicated ring, and our penning and breed stand will be adjacent.

Visitors to Beef Expo will walk past us to access the trade stands, so we are in a prime spot.

This venue in Cumbria is superbly positioned to promote the breed in the northern region, and it is a fantastic opportunity for us to demonstrate its commercial characteristics to a wide audience.

We need plenty of entries to make a splash, so please do support if you are a recording herd (and if you’re not, it’s not too late to start!)

At the recent British Cattle Breeders Club conference there was much talk about future beef breeding, and the need for breed societies to embrace DNA technology and not be left behind. The SDHBS is ahead of the game in this compared with many other beef breeds, having started to build a ‘reference population’ of proven sires with a minimum calving ease accuracy EBV. We are not there yet, but with all registered South Devon bulls being DNA tested on the 50k chip, new information is continuously being fed into the bank of data – so we are well on the way!

HOWEVER – I cannot stress strongly enough that, even when we reach the exciting time of launching a Genomic Predictor for the breed, there will be a continuing need to refresh and update the reference population with performance recorded animals – so we will continue to encourage performance recording as a necessary ‘tool in the box’ for herd development.

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REGION ONE (CORNWALL) FARM VISIT Saturday 16th February, 1.30 pm Farm visit at Tresaddern Farm, St Columb, TR9 6JD By kind invitation of P W R Weldhen and family Please let Stephanie Rowe know if you are attending - 01579 342407 –

LINDA TURPIE ROUNSEVELL MEMORIAL TROPHY Members are invited to submit nominations for Linda’s Trophy. This Award is made to the nominated person judged to have contributed the most towards breed promotion in the past year, in whatever capacity that may have been.

The nominations will be judged by Caroline Poultney (Secretary), Mark Thomas (President), and Ian Rounsevell, and the award will be made at the AGM on 28th March.

Please submit your nomination in writing, describing in no more than 300 words why you think your nominee is deserving of the award, by Monday 18th March 2019.

And finally …

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the "Chicken Surprise".

The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.

Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down. "Good grief, did you see that?" she asks her husband.

He hasn't, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams down.

Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation. "Please sir," says the waiter, "what you order?"

The husband replies, "Chicken Surprise."

"Ah... so sorry," says the waiter, "I bring you Peeking Duck!"

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