104
SHROPSHIRE HOLSTEIN CLUB
On Friday 23rd of October we opened our winter season with a talk given by Mike Tucker, the voice of all things Equestrian on the BBC, followed
by a Bake Off competition to raise funds for Macmillan Nurses.
What a splendid evening we had. Mike regaled us with stories from his childhood, growing up during his teen years and the life he has enjoyed being involved with three- day eventing and how he got involved as a commentator.
He is a farmer who, having gone out of dairy cows in 2009, is now, along with his son, developing a pure Wagyu herd along with a cereal enterprise. But Mike’s work was not done after his presentation. Along with Mitch, from ABS in the USA they were charged with
judging our cake competition. The winner of the male section was Roger Stevenson and the ladies section was won by Michelle Jerman. £250 was donated to Macmillan Nurses, great fun for a great cause.
At our November meeting we welcomed John Torrance from Curtismill Holsteins who is milking 480 cows, averaging 11,600 litres. John spoke frankly about his experiences, successes and future plans with one message ‘to never ignore the important issues.’ He was honest and forthright and obviously runs a successful operation in an increasingly urbanised area.
December 7th was the date for our AGM which saw 45 attendees go through the business in hand with Bryan Challenor as president, Jane Arrell as chair-lady for another year, Sue Cope staying on as treasurer, Frank Dixon as secretary and Charlotte Cope being joined by Izzy Whittaker as joint HYB leaders. The committee saw Jim O’Neill, Carol Weaver and Keith Davies stepping down after three years valuable service and the following being elected to join the committee: David Gadd, Phil Jackson, Carole Jones, John Eardley and John Lomax.
APRIL NEWS
As I write this in early February the cherry blossom is in full bloom the daffodils are flowering, snow drops are everywhere and we have still not seen any sustained wintery weather yet. We started the New Year with more rain, but here in Shropshire we were lucky to avoid the damaging deluges that other parts of the country experienced, but none-the-less, record rain fall for the time of year. However, our first meeting of 2016 was on
11th January when an enthralled audience of 50 members heard Oliver Hall of Evolution Farming talk about his business and how it has developed, working with his business partner Tom Rawson. The attention to detail and thorough cost accounting was interesting and resulted in many questions from the members who went home with many ideas to try and put in place at home. On 29th January we held our annual black tie dinner dance and presentation evening at Tern Hill Hall Hotel, Market Drayton. We were delighted to host our 2015 herd competition judge, Brian Yates and his wife, from Logan Holsteins as well as guests including Graham
and Rachel Dimelow, HUK chairman Andrew Dutton and his daughter, Amy, and Andrew and Janet Evans from Bubney Farm.
February 8th saw our members entertained by Mark Gethin who went out of milking cows and diverted his attention into alternative energy resources including solar, anaerobic digesters, green waste recycling and other interesting aspects of heat and energy recapturing. He left a lot of members wondering about their own business plans. The scale of Mark’s business and the financial numbers make this sound a better enterprise than milking cows 365 day a year and selling it at a loss.
Our HYB section is already busying themselves with not only the usual training workshops for the forthcoming year’s events and shows, but also planning the 2020 HYB Rally which we will be hosting in Shropshire. This will include planning events and venues for the rally, but before that we need to raise considerable funds, so be warned you will be approached by smiling HYB members who will be encouraging you to get involved.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116