NBDC Beef Classifiers Meurig James, Mike Deakins and David Clarke convened at the farm of Paul Pennington, near Bridgnorth, to complete the first British White classifications on Paul's Oldington Herd in March 2022.
Now that the scheme is underway and members are invited to book under the £200 Society contribution for 2022 (which will cover the entire cost of the visit for many herds), Paul says that he would encourage all members to consider having their cattle assessed: "Having offered up my herd for classification I would recommend the service to any breeder, whether your herd is large or small and regardless of management style, as the process is easy and accessible to everyone."
"The classifiers are incredibly knowledgeable and looked over my cattle with no judgement, offering a completely unbiased assessment of the structure of each animal and its suitability to the job of being a suckler cow within the parameters of our breed. They assessed the cattle in the field as we walked amongst the herd, and input the trait scores for each animal to their handheld device."
"Afterwards, they provided us with a printout of all of the scores, and the whole process was very quick and painless! I encourage anyone breeding pedigree British White cattle to apply for classification as it has provided us with an interesting look at our own cows, as well as data which we can now use to compare, publicise and improve them."
Members wishing to book classification visits for 2022 should contact BWCS.
