The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Allanfauld farmer to decide top interbreed cattle awards
rhs: Judging line-up will also feature former RHASS chairman John Dykes
Award-winning Scottish livestock farmer Archie MacGregor will take centre stage to decide the top interbreed cattle awards at the 2017 Royal Highland Show.
Mr MacGregor, who was the 2015 recipient of one of the livestock industry’s most prestigious prizes – the RHASS’s Sir William Young award – is renowned for breeding leading pedigree bloodlines at Allanfauld Farm, Kilsyth.
The farm extends to 1,800 acres and, alongside his son John, they run a flock of 1,200 Blackface sheep, 700 of which are kept pure and the rest put to the Bluefaced Leicester.
They also breed pedigree Texel sheep, Charolais and Limousin cattle and run a herd of around 35 suckler cows.
Mr MacGregor has previously won breed titles within the Royal Highland’s Charolais, Limousin and Blackface lines.
He will be joined in the centre of the interbreed cattle rings at Ingliston by Jack Ramsay, of Millerston Farm, who will adjudicate the native breed teams, while Northern Irish farmers Sam Coleman and Michael Robson will decide the beef pairs and junior beef interbreeds respectively.
Top show producer Carol Rettie, of Aberdona Mains, will judge the best of the young handlers in the beef cattle section.
The top dairy cow will be the pick of Ashley Fleming, from Downpatrick, in County Down, and the interbreed sheep leader will be adjudicated by William Sanderson, of Blackshiels Farm, Pathhead.
Former RHASS chairman and BBC Lambing Live personality John Dykes, of Mendick Lea, will choose between the interbreed sheep pairs and will also judge the upcoming champions of Scotland’s sheep world in the young handlers.
Within the heavy horse lines, Cameron Ormiston, of the Balmoral Estate will award the Sanderson Trophy, while three local Courier country judges have been invited to separate contestants within Scotland’s native breed rings.
HOYS and Olympia finalist Joanna Jack, of Wester Newburn, will judge the Highland Pony males; renowned breeder Ken Scott, of Kerryston, Broughty Ferry, takes centre stage amid the Shetland ponies; while Courier journalist Philippa Merry, of Baldovie, will judge both the ridden and young handler exhibits in the Clydesdale arenas.
In the turnouts, Meggernie and Loch Estate’s Steven McDonald will decide the winners from the Working Native Pony harness contest.