Delighted East Anglian dairy farmers took top honours in cattle contests at this year’s Suffolk Show.
John Smith, of St Osyth, near Clacton, scooped the supreme crown in the any other dairy breed category with his Ayrshire, Wigboro Wick Evolution Peggy, while Jason Salisbury, of Suffok Farmhouse Cheeses, at Creeting St Mary, near Stowmarket, took the reserve title with Guernsey cow Sharnford Morey Mint.
“I have had Ayshires now for six years and it’s my first home-bred champion so that’s good. I’m up to 30 Ayrshires at home now. She’s a second calver, only three weeks calved and she looks better than I thought she would look,” said John. Her next date will be at the Royal Norfolk Show, where he was hoping she would perform well there.
Jason said it was the first time he had won the supreme reserve any other dairy breed. “I’m extremely proud of our accomplishment,” he said.
Both will be opening up their farms for Open Farm Sunday on June 10. For John, it’s his first foray. “I feel like we need to educate the public with the negativity we have been having recently.”
He had been subject to trolling from animal rights activists after putting up images of his dairy cattle on social media and wanted to get across the other side, he explained. “It’s my living. I think they represent us in the wrong way so I think it’s good to have the public on the farm.”
Dairy cattle judge Andrew Birkle said the Ayrshire was a “real good cow” with a “well-attached udder”, and the runner-up was a “real good Guernsey”.
Ben Etteridge, chairman of the East Anglian Jersey Cattle Club, who lives at Burgh St Peter in Norfolk but keeps his Jerseys at Sotherton, near Halesworth, scooped the Jersey supreme title with Moonshine Glam Com Dance, a home-bred two-year-old. Ben began keeping Jerseys in 2000, having shown them from the age of five. The herd began after he acquired a calf and went from there, and, as he doesn’t have a farm of his own, are based in Suffolk and in Northamptonshire. Judge Andrew Birkle said the in-milk heifer was a “well balanced heifer, a lovely heifer, with a beautiful udder”.
Peter Prior of Essex and Eddie Brigham of Norfolk were celebrating after Easthaugh Audrey 70 took the Holstein crown.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here