North West Club Report

North West Club

Report by Peter Burgess, Chairman

So after our “enforced” layoff, the members of the North West Club swung back into action to organise, along with the Simmental Society, the calf show and stand at Agri Expo held within Carlisle Mart. A quality show of calves transpired which was very ably judged by Cameron Jackson, Future Herd, who after placing the eight classes, pairs and young handlers found his Overall Champion in Springfield Major, bred and shown by Gavin Brown. Huge thanks to all of our show sponsors, some of which support us year after year. Your generosity is gratefully appreciated. Thanks also to Joel McGarva for his show commentary and to the H and H staff for stewarding, and finally thanks to everyone for showing their calves.

Onto the stand and I can’t progress without firstly thanking Irving and Yvonne Pearson for supplying the three pens of cattle. These were an outstanding example of what Simmentals are capable of when used on commercial farms and crossed with other popular breeds. These cattle certainly caught the attention of the steady flow of people passing and stopping to enjoy the hospitality on the stand. I would like to thank all the members who sourced sponsorship, and helped with the show and the stand including serving tea and refreshments on the day, it was a great effort by all.

Our next and only other event during the year, was our Christmas meal held at the Lowther Arms, Hackthorpe. Good food and good company made for a very enjoyable evening, the highlight of which was another of Wendy Dickinson’s legendary quizzes. Congratulations to Chris Addison who emerged victorious and a big thank you to Wendy. I would like to finish by mentioning Heather Pritchard who recently stepped down from her role in the Pedigree department at Harrison and Hetherington. Over the years Heather has been a wonderful help to the club and the Society when organising shows and sales and the Agri Expo show and Stand. Problems evaporated when Heather was involved and her knowledge of these events and the farming industry in general is immense. On behalf of the club I would like to thank Heather for her help in the past and wish her well for the future.