Suffolk Show 2013: Waveney Valley dairy farmers are cream of the supremes

Waveney Valley dairy farmers were the cream of the supremes after scooping double glory in the inter-breed cattle championships at the Suffolk Show today.

Crawford & Co, of Topcroft, near Bungay, took the supreme champion and reserve awards in the dairy interbreed competition with their Holstein cow, Topcroft Sam Cameo and Ayrshire heifer Longwood Flash Crummie.

Meanwhile, in the beef cattle interbreed contest, Suffolk beef farmers Roger Harper and son-in-law Lee McInnes, of Weybread, near Diss, took the reserve interbreed beef champion title with British Charolais bull Weybread Frere, while the supreme title went to Heathbrow Caramel, a British Simmental heifer belonging to D A and L A Sapsed of Hitchin in Hertfordshire.

Andrew Brown’s Aberdeen Angus, Hawstead Lodge Peter, from Pinford End, Bury St Edmunds, scooped the native beef interbreed title.

Beef contest judge Alasdair Houston praised the presence and character of the winning Aberdeen Angus, and its length and width of line. He said the reserve overall champion Charolais bull showed “good growth and structure for his age” and walked well.

“He’s got a great line on him again and that’s what modern beef production is about,” he said.

Lee McInnes and Roger Harper said they were thrilled at their award for a bull which two years ago had been at the show as a calf at foot.

“It was outstanding really for us. We didn’t really expect to get as far as this anyway. This has been a bonus for us given that he’s only two and a half years old,” he said. “We have just got an outstanding breed line at the moment.

“We are not really professional at it. We are pig people really. This is a hobby really to fill our time in. To compete against the professionals, we do really well.”

Roger Harper added: “We were really pleased, he being so young. We didn’t really expect him to compete as a senior bull this year.”

Blaise Tomlinson, judging the dairy interbreed competition, said the winning Holstein “had the advantage of just being a better cow with a tremendous udder on her”.

“I admired her for her body capacity for a heifer,” he said.

He praised the Crawford family and said they were “obviously doing a good job”.

“They are very keen and they have got the fruits of their hard work today,” he said.

Sue Crawford said she was “ecstatic” at the double win.

“Robert (her son) does the work. It’s just amazing. We could not have had a better show if we had tried really. It has been phenomenal, totally unexpected,” she said.

Sue’s daughter Virginia, 21, added: “We weren’t expecting it when we came here. We are really pleased.”

Robert, 19, has just returned from a six month stint working on a dairy farm in Canada and is about to start his studies at Cirencester. The family has about 180 dairy cows, with 30 Ayrshires and 150 Holsteins.