LIVE LAMBS
A SUNSET red heifer lit up this year’s Anglesey Winter Show and brought a debut beef title for an exhibitor who literally jumped for joy on getting the judge’s tap.
Deiniol Hughes punched the air and leaped into the air after Lady In Red, his 13-month-old Limousin x heifer, was picked out by the judge, Bryn Lloyd.
The verdict was greeted almost as enthusiastically by the watching crowd at Anglesey showground, many of whom were keen to make a quick getaway to catch the Wales rugby team on TV.
Bought privately from Berwyn Hughes, Lampeter, and produced by Deiniol and his dad Arwel, of Plas Newydd, Llanbabo, the heifer had earlier topped the YFC rankings. By going on to take the supreme title, Deiniol became the first YFC winner since Awel Jones almost 20 years ago.
“It means a lot to me because I’ve been so close to winning it over the years,” he said.
On a good day for Plas Newydd, Deiniol also led a homebred calf, Blackberry, to the reserve Baby Beef title.
There were more celebrations in Llanbabo on Saturday night after Llyr Hughes and dad Peredur secured the reserve supreme title with Queen Bee.
Earlier the Limousin x heifer had replicated her Agi Expo win by lifting the Baby Beef title, thus capping a run of good results for Llyr and his Pabo herd – he also topped last month’s Carlisle Limousin sale with a 17,000gns bull.
“You never expect anything when you enter a show, so to get a result like this is very pleasing, especially for an animal this young,” said Llyr.
Aged just six months, Queen Bee will be joining Lady In Red on the Winter Fair sawdust in Builth Wells later this month.
An oddity of the Anglesey beef result was the absence of the steer and heifer leaders on the supreme podium. Wyn Williams, of Penrhyn Farm, Llanfwrog, might have hoped for more after seeing two of his homebred entries dominate the steer championship.
The best of these was Dakota, a 17-month-old British Blue x Limousin bullock shown by Ieuan Evans that was second in its class at Agri Expo. Standing reserve was Wyn’s Torpedo, an October 2017-born Limousin x steer.
Topping the heifers was a Limousin x called Diva, bred and shown by Caernarfon butcher Robyn Jones. It was an excellent start for a 21-month-old making her debut in the show ring.
Reserve heifer was Miss Bala, another Limousin x. Shown by Meleri Francis, the 21-month-old was reserve commercial at September’s Cerrig Show for owner Gwanwyn Rowlands, Llandderfel. WHILE cattle numbers on the day were slightly down on the 2017 show, entries in the lamb pens were slightly up.
Three pairs were supplied by show debutants Dafydd Lewis and