The supreme champion also came from the same 2020-born heifer show class as the reserve supreme.
Clinching first the female championship, then the overall title were Tom and David Bradley Farmer, who run the Meonside herd at Parkgate Farm, Parkgate.
They took top honours with their May, 2020, light roan Meonside Desiree Penelope, the first-ever daughter to be sold by Caramba Kinvara, acquired privately several years ago from well-known Irish breeder Tommy Staunton in Co. Galway.
The victor sold free of the bull and returned to her sire’s breeder Mr Staunton following a successful online bid of 5200gns. Scottish show judge, Carey Coombes, described his chosen champion as “a good, thick, but not too thick Beef Shorthorn, yet very feminine with a tremendous top line – like a table – and beautifully turned out.”
Skipton is a happy hunting ground for Meonside, which was making only its second appearance at the breed highlight – their first two years earlier produced a top price of 6000gns for a prize-winning junior heifer.
The Bradley Farmers first established their now third generation herd in 2007 in Hampshire, moving lock, stock and barrel to Scotland three years ago. They now have some 50 cows on the ground, plus three stock bulls, whose daughters were all represented at the Skipton highlight, the other two both picking up tickets.
They also stood third in the same heifer show class as their champion with another May-born entry, Meonside Shamrock Pocahontas, a roan by Meonside King Kong, a maternal brother to the family’s 27,000gns breed record price holder, Meonside Nidavellir, while the dam, Caramba Lovely Lovely, which goes back to the renowned Erin family, was another Irish buy at 4000gns. Again sold empty she, too, did well at 5000gns when also joining Mr Staunton.
In addition, the Bradley Farmers finished runners-up in the senior heifer show class with the December 2019 Meonside Tessa Nativity, a light roan by Willingham Kensington, the sire of their 27,000gns breed record price holder, whose first sons sold at auction to average 20,000gns.
Out of Meonside Tessa Lilac and from the same family as the much admired 4,200gns Nebula, Nativity was sold in-calf to Caramba Kinvara.
Also catching the eye with a 3600gns maiden heifer sale was the Thomson, Roddick & Laurie farming partnership’s Shawhill herd at Eaglesfield. Their Shawhill Dewdrop Phoenix, a June 2020 daughter of the 20,000gns Fearn Godfather, out of a Glenisla Zetor-sired dam, joined Welsh buyer, EM Roberts, of Llithfaen on Gwynedd’s Llŷn Peninsula.
Pictured above: The Skipton Beef Shorthorn supreme champion from the Bradley Farmer Meonside herd. From left are judge Carey Coombes, Tom Bradley Farmer and the herd’s Lucy Sanger.
By Tim Scrivener Agricultural Photography
