East Anglian Jersey Cattle Club
2008 Review
This year seems like a repeat of last as, I write at the beginning
of June, we, and probably most of East Anglia have had more
than two inches of rain in the last few days, silage making
is on hold, won’t be such good quality, most of the cattle
and sheep in our area have had their second dose of the BTV8
vaccine which hopefully will keep our animals free from Bluetongue
until the next strain appears.
We started off the year in February having a committee meeting
at Jonathon and Ann Tomkinson for which we are very grateful,
and then in April our next committee meeting and AGM plus a
talk from Roger Taylor, Chairman of DFB Channel Island Milk
Group talked about future plans, a very interesting insight
into how our product goes into various foods. This again took
place at Jonathon and Ann’s, so a very big thank you
for hosting all our meetings.
At our AGM Roger Taylor presented the club’ cups as
follows:
RUGGLES BRISE CUP for the highest yielding
cow in 305 days Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Lesters Karen 1006
kgs Fat and Protein.
Reserve Mr and Mrs Tomkinson Dunnallan Pitinos Jancis 913
kgs Fat and Protein
EGLINGTON CUP for the highest yielding herd
in 305 days Mr and Mrs Mahon 692 kgs Fat and Protein.
Reserve Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 675 kgs Fat and Protein
POSTLETHWAITE CUP for the highest total %
Fat and Protein Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 9.68 %
Reserve Mr and Mrs Mahon 9.28 %.
After the AGM a short committee meeting was held to elect
the Officers of the Club. Chairman Nick Dain, Vice Chairman
Glyn Thomas, Treasurer Frank Mahon, Secretary Su Mahon.
At the Suffolk Show in the Any other Dairy Breed, the Judge,
Mrs Jenny Daw put John Cawston as Champion Jersey and Champion
of Any other Dairy Breed with Poringland Dreamgirl 9, who then
went on to be the Interbreed Champion, James Strachan’s
Rapid Bay –UK Jacks lets Dance was the Reserve Any other
Breed Champion, Congratulations to both of you.
Wednesday 11th June saw the club visiting E S Cole Holstein
herd at Winfarthing in the morning. We had a most interesting
day, the herd is very impressive and very quiet, most of the
cows stayed lying down whilst we looked around them, Ellie
Cole has just started a small Guernsey herd, so we were able
to see them, her in calf heifer came second in her class at
the Royal Norfolk show. We had a good turn out of members and
friends and ended our visit by having sandwiches at the Fighting
Cocks Pub just down the road. The weather couldn’t have
been better after the weeks of such uncertain weather.
At the Royal Norfolk Show the Jersey classes were later than
usual as the Interbreed classes were to be held at 12.30pm
on the Wednesday, our judge was David Jones , he placed Ben
Etteridge’s homebred cow Moonshine Hallmarks Lady Aster
as Champion and NW Moore and Sons Depwade Tangerine 8 as Reserve
Champion.
Ollie Dain was first in the Dry Cow class at the Royal with
Kingsgrove Dunkers Kirsch, nice to have an East Anglian member
exhibiting at the Show.
At the Aylsham Show in the Any other Dairy Breed, the Dry
Cow class was won by Bolderston Partners with Marshview Councillor
Cramy who was also the Reserve Champion but I was delighted
to see that Chloe Bolderston won the Interbreed calf championship
with her Jersey calf Tetfor Ring Julia and in the handlers
class she was first. Well done Chloe for flying the Jersey
flag.
The committee met on Monday 22nd September at Jonathon and
Ann, we were thin on the ground but had a good meeting, sorted
the details for the 60th Anniversary Dinner to be held at Scole
Inn on Friday 24th October 7.30 for 8pm and hoped we would
have a good turn out. Our thanks again to Jonathon and Ann
for hosting all our meetings at Punchards Farm.
Jonathon and Ann sold their herd in March keeping back some
cows for their very successful business selling Milk and cream
at the farmgate and farmers markets.
Our 60th Anniversary Dinner was a great success, one of the
best for a long time. Scole Inn did us proud and I think 47
people which included three guests was impressive!
Our chairman Nick Dain gave a brief resume of when the club
started, their first meeting at the Angel Hotel, Bury St Edmunds
on 1st April 1948 at 2pm. We had a very nice article in the
EDP the week before stating various antedotes from the minute
books of the club. Not a lot changes over the years! They seemed
to have had the same problems as we do.
To celebrate the 60 years, we had a cake beautifully decorated
with a Jersey cow on the top which was cut and had with our
coffee. Instead of the usual Raffle we had a Tombola for the
ARC Addington Fund and raised £146. Thanks to all who
brought and bought.
I would like to thank the club for the beautiful bouquet of
flowers presented to me during the evening, they lasted over
3 weeks! And gave me great pleasure.
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a Happy, Healthy
and Prosperous 2009.
Su Mahon
Chairman’s Report:
Well another year has come and gone and the EAJCC is in its 61st year!! 2008
started with a good spring, a very wet summer and a long winter. However our
members and our breed have survived to fight another day.
We visited the Coles families Holstein herd on one of the
best weather days of the year. We saw a great herd of well
bred pedigree cows with great power and strength. Also the
small beginnings of a new Guernsey herd belonging to Ellie
Cole. One these went on to take second prize at the Royal Norfolk
Show.
Two days of sunshine at local shows saw success for John Cawston
at the Suffolk and young Ben Etteridge at the Royal Norfolk,
ably backed by cows from the herds of Ralph Moore, James Strachan
and the Bolderston family. Our one exhibitor at the Royal Ollie
Dain managed to win the production and inspection championship
for the breed and to go on to compete in the interbreed. Blue
tongue restrictions unfortunately depleted many of our county
shows.
Milk prices were reasonable at the start of the year but have
been in decline ever since.
Thanks to James Cross, we are kept up to date with not only
DFB but the cheese trade and products in general, “thank
you James”
In my humble opinion our 60th anniversary dinner was the best
we have had for years, we had people from as far away as Devon,
Hertfordshire and Essex to join us for the evening, we even
managed to fit in an unexpected guest at the last moment, “Su
knows who I mean”!!
Which brings me to thank time once again Ann and Jonathon
who have thrown open their doors for our AGM and committee
meetings, what would we do with out them, and last but by no
means least to Su who organised our 60th dinner and has kept
our chairman on the straight and narrow for another year and
even come to the dinner on her wedding anniversary and Franks
birthday.
Thanks to you all for your help and to everyone for keeping
Jersey cows in the lime light during 2008.
Presentation of Cups:
Mrs Leverett presented the cups as follows:
Ruggles Brise Cup for the highest yielding cow in 305 days
Mr and Mrs Tomkinson Dunallan Pitiono Sheena 966 kgs fat and
Protein.
Reserve Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Perimeters Nikki 957 kgs Fat
and Protein.
Eglington Cup for the highest yielding herd in 305 days
Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 687 kgs Fat and Protein.
Reserve Mr and Mrs Mahon 670 kgs Fat and Protein.
Postlethwaite Cup for the highest total % Fat and Protein
Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 9.63%
Reserve Mr and Mrs Roper 9.24%
|
