Albion Cattle Society Inaugural Herd Competition:  September, 2024.

Judge: Ms Ruth Dalton      

The winners: Mr John Ball & Ms Lynn Parks with the Betchton herd.

  Ruth is a native livestock specialist who is passionate about native breeds & their place in sustainable farming systems and she advises farmers, land managers & breed societies throughout the UK. She used to work for RBST & gave valued advice when the Albions were trying to gain official breed recognition. We couldn't think of anyone more suitable to ask to be our first judge.

The 2024 herd competition was a low-key affair designed as a bit of fun, hopefully creating some publicity to promote the breed. The results were announced at the ACS Open Weekend on Saturday 5th October at Rockhurst Farm, Matlock. John Ball & Lynn Parks received the Royal Agricultural Society of England cup, originally awarded for the best female Albion at the Royal Show.

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This cup was originally presented by the Blue Albion Cattle Society in the 1920s & was won by staunch member Mr C H Goodwin in 1936, 37 & 39. For understandable reasons, the shows ended there & now this cup has been very kindly re-presented by the family of the late Messrs C A & C H Goodwin. Mr & Mrs Richard Hewitt, (from the Goodwin family,) kindly agreed to award the cup and various rosettes and read out the judge's comments. Sadly John and Lynn, could not be present on the day but Mr and Mrs Hewitt were invited to a personal visit to the winning herd where they awarded the cup.

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  The competition was open to any fully paid-up member who owned at least one pedigree Albion. Each entrant had a choice of including a video up to a maximum of 3 minutes and /or photos of their stock. This could be accompanied by a written (text, WhatsApp or email) or spoken (video recorded i.e. WhatsApp) account of their breeding policy. We were very happy with the number of entries in this first year.

   So this was an enjoyable but difficult task for Ruth as, it was up to each entrant as to how many photos they put in and how much text was written and of course an entrant may have a larger herd of Albions or just one or two.

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Below are Ruth's comments along with a few photos that she picked out. 

RESULTS

​It was a great pleasure to judge the Albion herd competition, and I very much appreciated the invitation. There were some excellent cattle of all ages, and I found the standard of animals to be very high – which did not make my job an easy one.
I was looking for animals with good conformation and dual-purpose qualities, good legs and feet and that showed Albion breed type and characteristics. In females, I was looking for the classic feminine “wedge-shape” from front to back, both from the side and above. In bulls, I was looking for a balanced animal, with good structure, depth, length and musculature but not over- muscled.

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1st place – Betchton herd
A larger herd with sound conformation and excellent udder quality across a wide age range - as shown by the numerous herd and individual photos. I particularly liked the dual-purpose characteristics on display and the consistency of conformation and udder quality shown here.
The legs and feet in this herd were also excellent and I was impressed with the depth and length shown in the females.

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2nd place – Speckles herd
A very close second for another larger herd with a long history with the breed. A range of photos and videos showed a herd with excellent Albion characteristics which were thriving in both dairy
and conservation grazing/ beef settings, showing the true versatility of the breed. My eye was particularly drawn to an in-calf 2022 heifer which had good conformation and a sweet Albion head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd place – Hollystone herd
Lovely presentation of this herd by their young owner, with females of all ages in good condition and showing the docile temperament that the breed is renowned for. I particularly liked heifer Hollystone Tia, and I am looking forward to seeing this herd expand in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special mention – Far Laithe herd
I particularly liked the deep bodied older cow.

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Special mention - Henstone herd

A nice selection of photos from this relatively newly established herd. All animals are in excellent condition and I particularly liked the blue Henmore heifer (Speckles) which showed good breed character.

Special mention – Bemborough herd
An Albion herd showing good breed character, in excellent condition.

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