Sir Ken Morrison Praises Borderway Agri-Expo
2009-11-03

In just three years Harrison & Hetherington’s Borderway Agri-Expo event has firmly established itself as the best one-day agricultural event in the UK. Cattle and sheep exhibitors, trade stands, young farmers and keen farmers and industry representatives filled Borderway Mart on 30th October 2009 to witness a spectacular show.

Cattle Championship presentation with mainline sponsors l/r Katie Lomas (Farmers Guardian), Andrew Thornton (Lloyds TSB Agriculture), Sir Ken Morrison, Michael Winchester (Morrisons), Mark Holliday (Carrs Billington), Llion Jones (winner), Master Jones (winner), Tecwyn Jones (winner), Paul Barker (Morrisons). Missing from picture Norbrook.

Having been invited as the event’s VIP guest, founder of the supermarket giant Morrisons and now farmer Sir Ken Morrison praised the Borderway Agri-expo team for putting on such a phenomenal event which portrayed the confidence present in the agricultural industry at present.

Commenting on his visit to Borderway Mart he said: “As someone who has followed this industry from both sides of the farm gate, it’s been a pleasure to witness such an impressive display of prime cattle and sheep and learn from visiting farmers and a buzzing line up of trade stands that the agricultural industry is thriving. That much is evident from the amount of people present today.

This event has gone from strength to strength and the team at H&H should be congratulated for putting on an event that will no doubt be constantly compared to as one of the best in the farming calendar.”

Yet again, the event received great support from a vast list of sponsors and associated partners and H&H would like to thank all those that supported the event. Commenting on the success of the day event organiser and operations director at Harrison and Hetherington, David Pritchard endorsed that there was a fantastic show of livestock on display and exhibitors should be proud of presenting such high quality stock to this event.

“The day captured enormous interest from all over the UK with an estimated attendance of more than 12,000 people. The charity auction and donations in the support of the Great North Air Ambulance and Macmillan nurses raised more than £5000.”

Welsh dominate Borderway Agri-Expo commercial cattle classes

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the display of commercial show cattle on offer was one of the best ringsiders are likely to see this year.

Building on last year’s success, this event has cemented itself as one of the finest one-day agricultural events in the UK. With more than 200 head of cattle entered, some 20 classes presented themselves for judge and noted showman Donald MacPherson of Berwick on Tweed, who has picked up countless titles at Smithfield and the Scottish Winter Fair.

And it was in the heifer classes that he found his overall champion, even though he had to wait until the last class on the day to see her. Entered by Tecwyn Jones, Llanrwst, Conway and shown by his son Llion Jones in the Young Farmers Classes, the June 2008-born British Blue x Limousin heifer Black Beauty had it all for Mr MacPherson. “She is smart, showy and incredibly sound on her legs. A well balanced heifer she has a tremendous loin and cover on her ribs.”

Having previously stood champion at Beef Expo in May this year, Black Beauty was bought privately from Trefor Jones, Caernarfon and is by Netherwood Umpire. She will continue her showing career, before hopefully being retained by the Jones family adding to the eight commercial cows and 40 pedigree Welsh Blacks.

The Welsh and Jones family success continued as Gerwyn Jones (Tecwyn’s cousin) was tapped out to take the reserve heifer and reserve overall championship with his Limousin cross heifer Miss Unique. Bred by Andrew Davies, Carmarthen, this was a first time outing for the heifer and a first appearance at Borderway Agri-Expo for Mr Jones.

Commenting on his reserve, Mr MacPherson said: “It was difficult to split these two heifers as they both had bags of style and presence, but the champion just edged it for me in carcass balance.”

The male championship went to Graham and son Matthew Jones, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, with their British Blue x Limousin steer Sooty. Bred by Frank Page, the April 2008-born Sooty is by Tamhorn Ringmaster and was bought last year for £1100.

Taking the reserve male championship was Elfed Williams, Brecon, Powys, with his Limousin cross King Kong. Bred by Andrew Powell, Knighton, Powys, King Kong is by Glanmehilli Thumper.

Commenting on the success of the day event organiser and operations director at Harrison and Hetherington, David Pritchard endorsed that there was a fantastic show of livestock on display and exhibitors should be proud of presenting such high quality stock to this event.

Continental steers:
Class 1 J H Craggs with Limousin x British Blue cross Otis
Class 2 A and E Vance with Limousin cross Kaiser Chief
Class 3 B E Williams with Limousin cross King Kong (reserve steer champion)
Class 4 J L White and Son with British Blue cross Rocket
Class 5 L Y Hughes with British Blue x Limousin Trevor Boy
Class 6 Graham Jones with British Blue x Limousin Sooty (steer champion)
Class 7 Williams and Tippetts with Limousin cross Buck Off

Continental heifers:
Class 8 Mr and Mrs M J Alford with Limousin x British Blue x Limousin Poker Face
Class 9 J and D Hyslop with Charolais x Limousin cross Miss Chief
Class 10 Mrs H Jones and Son with Charolais x Limousin x British Blue Elsa
Class 11 Gerwyn Jones with Limousin cross Miss Unique (reserve heifer champion and reserve overall champion)
Class 12 S E Sellers with British Blue x Limousin cross Betty Boop
Class 13 J Hyslop and A Richardson with Limousin cross Charisma
Class 14 Tecwyn Jones with Limousin x British Blue cross Ginger Spice
Class 15 A and E Vance with Limousin cross Viva La Diva
Class 16 J and L Craik with Limousin Urr Cheekygirl

Native steer
Class 18 Mr and Mrs M J Alford with Galloway Super Man

Native heifer
Class 19 Turnbull family with Aberdeen-Angus x British Blue Stilton

Young Farmers
Class 20 Tecwyn Jones (shown by Llion Jones) with British Blue x Limousin heifer Black Beauty (heifer champion and overall champion)

Beltex crosses take Borderway Agri-Expo sheep title

Sheep numbers were yet again strong with quality shining through in all the classes at this year’s Borderway Agri-Expo, with the winning pair coming through from the over 40kg Beltex class.

Carrying on their winning form from Countryside Live the week before with the same lambs, Andrew and Becky Bishop, Eldersfield, Gloucester, won their section class and went on to take the overall champion pair of Continental/Down lambs before lifting the trophy for the overall champion.

Judge Granville Colgrave, Inchture, Perthshire, praised these lambs for being full of meat and a great example of carcass sheep. The winning purebred ewe lambs are sired by Luggsmill Laney, the same sire of their recent 4000gns ewe lamb sold in Lanark.

The reserve overall championship went to Bedale, North Yorkshire-based Martin Brown and his daughter Hannah, whose Beltex cross lambs came through from winning the young farmers class for the third year on the bounce.

The champion pair of hill bred lambs went to Claire and Ian Huddleston, Hexham, Northumberland, who took the title with a pair of Swaledales. Commenting on their win, Mr Huddleston said: “This was a fantastic achievement for the breed as we tend not to feature heavily in championship line ups.”

The reserve hill bred champions were a pair of Blackface lambs from Andrew Baillie, Carnwath, Lanark.

New to the event this year was a competition for the best pair of Mule gimmer lambs. On winning form here were Ron and Fran Wilson, Armathwaite, Cumbria, who also took the award for the best pair of NEMSA tagged lambs.

Dairy classes

Another new addition to the Borderway Agri-Expo competition line up was the inclusion of dairy classes. Judged this year by Holstein breeder Rebecca Jarvis, Thirsk, Yorkshire, this competition saw two classes for the best cow in milk and the best heifer in milk.

The cow class was won by R W Bell with Nerewater Lily 5, a daughter of Nerewater Credit born in October 2005. The Bell family also won the heifer in milk class with another daughter of Credit, this time Nerewater Gill 3rd.

Breed Society classes:

Alongside the main commercial cattle judging the Aberdeen-Angus, Hereford and British Blue breed societies held specialist calf shows in conjunction with Agri-Expo.

Winning the Aberdeen-Angus English National Calf Show was John Lascelles with his January 2008-born Balmachie Black Bear H050, a son of Rawburn Lord C216 out of Blelack Blackbird E350.

Leading the way in the Hereford classes to take the female title was Ron Wilson and his son Robert’s Romany 1 Lucy A84, a September 2008-born daughter of Baybridge 1 Atlas out of Romany 1 Lucy A49.

Winning the Border British Blue Club competition was Jonathan Bellas with Croftends Emma, a daughter of Empire D’ochain out of Croftends Belle.

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