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| Peter Howells |
Award winning Royal Show judge, Peter Howells is scheduled to judge the entry of Charolais bulls at the breed society's official early spring show at Harrison & Hetherington's Borderway Mart, in Cumbria on Friday March 11, prior to them coming under the hammer later that day.
“I'll be searching for bulls suited for the commercial producer,” he said. “They must have plenty of length and backend, and the potential to leave easy calved Charolais cross progeny with exceptional weight for age and that essential easy fleshing.”
Back home on his family's farm near Llanybydder, Ceredigion, Peter applies the same selection criteria to his Pedr herd of seven pedigree cows which he runs alongside his father, John's 38 cow Gwenog herd.
“We're focused on breeding Charolais bulls for the commercial man that have extra length and good hindquarters and we make sure they're suitable for today's low input easy care systems,” he explains.
“I believe we've got a great future in Charolais as the leading terminal beef sire under the new regime, and already we're seeing a bigger price differential in the store ring between high performance Charolais cross calves and those by other Continental terminal sires,” said Peter.
“Commercial suckler men are becoming increasingly aware that these Charolais crosses will grow fast to achieve a good weight and go on to help them to maximise output and subsequent income.
“While we trade the bulk of our Charolais bulls into the commercial market, we have had some real success selling to other pedigree breeders,” he said.
Eighteen months ago, Peter was awarded the junior and overall reserve championships in Perth with Pedr Thumper, a 16 month old bull who went on to sell for the day's top price of 31,000gns. “Such success was completely beyond my wildest dreams,” he said.
“Dad gave me one of his homebred in-calf heifers to establish my herd as an 18th birthday present, and my goal was to the achieve the Perth leader within 10 years. I got there within seven year
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