Cattle market gears up for Christmas

CHRISTMAS came early for delighted cattle owner Cliff Collins as his beef heifer took top spot at a seasonal prime stock show.The farmer, of Cobwebs Farm, Elmsett, won the overall champion award with his Limousin cross at Stanford's Colchester Christmas Prime Stock Show, held yesterday .

CHRISTMAS came early for delighted cattle owner Cliff Collins as his beef heifer took top spot at a seasonal prime stock show.

The farmer, of Cobwebs Farm, Elmsett, won the overall champion award with his Limousin cross at Stanford's Colchester Christmas Prime Stock Show, held yesterday .

Mr Collin's heifer, which scooped the Best Butchers Heifer 504kg or under title as well as the Olivers' Perpetual Cup for the Champion Beast of the Show, was bought by Mark Newman of Newman's meat wholesalers of Farnborough in Hampshire for £1,609.

Scott Horton of B & H Sheep in Hertfordshire swept the board in the sheep section after a pair of his Beltex cross lambs took first place in the under 40kg category, and a pair of his Charolais lambs were crowned overall champions and winners of the William Gray Perpetual Challenge Cup after scooping the over 40kg prize.

The winning lambs were sold to Wick Farm Meats at Laye-de-la-Haye for £110 each.

It was Mr Collins' partner, Pat Symes, who spotted their champion-in-the-making in Yorkshire as they were travelling from one farm show to another during the summer. He later bought it and took it home for her.

“I'm over the moon,” she said. “It has been my wish to stand there with the champion. It's the first time for me so I'm thrilled to bits as I chose her as well.”

Mr Collins, who keeps a small beef cattle herd of between 30 and 40, said: “I'm very pleased to win the overall.

“I have shown here before and I had reserve champion before, but that was many years ago. You can't go into this business expecting to win, otherwise you have got the wrong attitude about the job altogether.

“Everyone goes with the hope of winning. You have got to have the right beast on the day and you have got to have a lot of luck.”

Buyer Mr Newman said: “I think the judge had a good eye there and it seems to me he's got the right animal up there. It's a nice sized butcher's carcase, just right for the Christmas trade.”

Mr Horton, who runs his sheep business in partnership with Roy Brazier, said he was “over the moon” at his wins.

Sheep judge Colin Byford, who runs a family abattoir and wholesale meat business at Little Clacton, praised the quality of the entries, particularly in the heavy class, describing it as “an excellent show of sheep”.

“It's made the job a little more difficult,” he admitted.

The reserve champion award went to G & H Blythe of Horsford, near Norwich, with a British Blue cross heifer.