Christmas tidings

Wessex Lowlines would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!! 

Nothing better....roast beef sunday dinner !

6lb topside joint of Lowline beef - meltingly tender and so very tasty. 

Calves weaned

All but the later born calves were weaned last week, they will be given time to settle and then halter training will begin.

Roast beef sirloin Sunday lunch

Just enjoyed a mighty fine roast sirloin. So tender and tasty, even better knowing it is Lowline and this is a taste of things to come

Lowline beef!

We got our first beast back from the butchers today and it looks great & nicely marbled 

I have cooked a nice rump steak for dinner and it is meltingly tender and really delicious, very pleased indeed to a- finally get to the stage of having some of our own beef and b- that it is as delicious as we hoped! 

Viewing cattle

We headed out in the snow today to view some cattle at Big Island Lowlines.

Charlotte got rather taken by the horses instead and wanted to pop a pony in to our crate! 

Lowline show day in edmonton

Show day today for the Lowlines, totally different way of showing to how we show in the uk. The judge doesn't examine each animal individually or put hands on at all, just studies them as a group.

Some good animals out

Farmfair - Edmonton

Looking forward to getting a good look at some Lowlines today in snowy cold edmonton (minus12 yesterday!)  there are several breeders from Canada and at least one from the USA so it will be a good show.

Calf show is this morning.

Canadian visit

We are looking forward to attending the Farmfair international in edmonton soon where we will be able to see a good show of Lowlines from Canada and the USA and meet with fellow breeders.

Today we were able to make a visit to Highpoint Lowlines where we had a look over their cattle. They have some very nice bulls including Highpoint Revolution and the young Texplode.

Checking the stock in the autumn sunshine

Charlotte went to check the cattle today.....

Chiperoo likes a scratch under the chin!

Lowline cow &calf

2 Angus surrogate mums come to say hello

Lovely crisp autumn day, the cows are looking well and the grass is still good - hard to believe this field was only seeded earlier this summer! 

Succesful day

What a lovely day today for our second open day. We had visitors from far and wide including Italy, Scotland, Kent, devon and Somerset.

A lot of interest in the cattle, some people had seen us out and about at shows, some had seen our editorials and adverts but not the cattle in flesh - all went home knowing a lot more about the breed.

I think all our efforts in preparation paid off

That's the last event for us for the year...now we can look forward to a trip out to Farmfair in Edmonton to meet with Lowline breeders and view cattle.

Our notice board with just a few of our rosettes and photos

all ready for arrivals

a lovely deep lowline cow

a good shaped bull calf

Hurrah!

The sun is shining!!

Looks  like we are going to have a lovely day for the open day.

OPEN DAY TOMORROW - 10am- 3pm

The weather is looking promising, we have had an AWFUL lot of emails and phone calls so we are expecting a good turn out.

Anyone wanting to find out more about the Lowline breed and to see the cattle up close -this is the prefect day, see the animals, ask any questions you may have and hopefully we will be able to answer them! 

                                 

Open day preparations

Been a busy day today getting ready for the open day.

David's been pressure washing and making sure everywhere is ready and cattle where they need to be.

 Ive been getting the office ready - leaflets done, information packs ready, display done, Tea & coffee stocked up!!

Thankfully the weather forecast has improved so fingers crossed for a sunny day.... ..

A nice surprise earlier this week

Anyone attending the open day this weekend will get to see our surprise arrival - a lovely heifer calf born earlier this week! 

2013 OPEN DAY - SUNDAY 6TH OCTOBER!!

Just to confirm our open day this year is on sunday 6th October.

Just a week on Sunday , hoping for a day like last years - blue skies and glorious sunshine!

Please don't mix up the diary dates from last year where the open day was October the 14th.

Royal Berkshire - day 1

Judging started early this morning with a prompt 830am start

First up was the bull class where our young bull Apollo took first place and Conker 3rd with 2 south Devons taking 2nd and 4th

Conker watching proceedings!

The bull line up

3rd for Conker

1st place for Apollo!

 

Then the Cow class where a beef shorthorn took 1st, our cow Gracie got 2nd red poll 3rd and our other cow Sadie got fourth  - no pictures unfortunately as we were all in the ring!

The heifer class was of an excellent standard, the judge commented that all of the entries were very good and it was a very close decision but a Lincoln red took 1st, beef shorthorn 2nd, south devon 3rd and Angela got 4th

Angela

Heifer class

Heifer class - 1st and 2nd place animals went onto to get Champion and reserve.

 

The Lincoln red went on to take the championship with beef shorthorn in reserve , for the junior championship the south devon heifers took it and our young bull Apollo got the reserve junior championship.



 

Tiring work showing - for cattle and handlers!

the junior champion - a south devon and Apollo in reserve

 



Royal Berkshire show

Off to Newbury this weekend for the royal Berkshire show.

A new show for us - fingers crossed for dry weather for the last show of the year! 

Succesful day at Frome show today

We had an early 6am start today for Frome show and thankfully the rain had cleared and it came out a nice day, although the livestock entrance was a bit clarty and vehicles were bogged down early this morning and made such a mess that tractors were needed to pull many wagons out for people tonight!

Frome is the only show in the UK at the moment that has specific Lowline class's so it was nice to be showing against Lowlines instead of umpteen other breeds! also our judge today judges all over the world and has Judged Lowlines many times - in fact just recently returned from judging them in Wyoming so he knows the breed which is always a bonus.

So we started with the young handler class and Logan showed his calf very well but actually all the entrants did a superb job and it was very close between all competitors. Logan took 6th.

Then on with the Lowline class's - first was the cow & calf class, Gracie took first place and Sadie 3rd place. - no pictures as I was in the ring!

In the Calf class Chiperoo got 2nd place and Crusher 3rd place

In the heifer class we got 3rd with Angela and also got a 2nd place with a heifer we sold earlier this year but showed for the new owner who had other commitments today.

In the Junior bull class we got 1st with Apollo, 2nd with Beau and 3rd with Chiperoo

Apollo

Conker took first in the senior bull class

Apollo and Angela also took first place in the pairs class.

We were then over the moon to be awarded the championship with Gracie!

The line up for the championship - what a line of lowlines!

Gracie the champion!

So we came home with 13 rosettes!

Dorset show - day 2

A wet start this morning but thankfully the sun broke through.lots of hanging around waiting for classs but eventually the Young handlers class's got underway and Logan won first place and Charlotte got 4th place.

Then it was the native breed group class's which we had been told to enter despite native being a subjective description. Lowlines a certainly indigenous to the uk being Angus derived but people may argue for and against us being a native breed. The judge wasnt in favour of the smaller breeds putting lowlines and dexters at the bottom end and the larger Charolais, Aberdeen Angus, Herefords and south Devons taking the higher places which we expected.

tiring work showing....catching a quick nap on the way home !

 

We got home to find 24 quail chicks hatched in our first attempt at incubating eggs for Logan's new quail venture!