Hardings win BWCS National Herd Competition for 2024
- BWCS
- Oct 5, 2024
- 12 min read
Judged and awarded by the previous year’s Randolph Turpin Trophy winner, Mark Kennett of the Cadarn herd, the overall National Herd Competition trophy was won in 2024 by Keith & Ro Harding. Summarising his thoughts on each herd he visited, Mark takes us through his on-farm judging trip and how he awarded the prizes!
I’d like to start by thanking the Society for giving me the opportunity to judge the herd competition, it’s been an honour and an amazing experience. I think Les (Cook, ‘22 winner and ‘23 judge) awarded us the trophy partly to show us just how inconvenient it is coming to see us, and with a 2½ hour drive to get to the closest herd to us, that soon became quite clear. Having said that, we will definitely be entering again and urge anybody that has not previously done so to enter next year, as it’s a real opportunity to show off your cattle to people who really want to see them.
We travelled 2,950 miles to see 21 herds around the country, every one of them different, kept in so many different ways by so many different people, with such a huge range of facilities. Every herd was a potential winner on its own merits so I had to set myself a strict criteria to help narrow it down. We saw lots of lovely bulls, with the Tollesbury, Castleton, Alcroft and Cadarn prefixes appearing most frequently. It is very difficult to judge a herd as ’best’, because what is best for one situation may not be best for another, and I believe most of us already have our own personal best herd. My winning herd criteria in each category was that the herd should be largely home-bred, ideally have an eye-catching bull and an impressive selection of calves. The next most important quality was to have made me come away thinking ’wow’. My runners up for each category were all herds that impressed me but did not, for one reason or another, fulfil all the elements that I’d set for category winners, but definitely deserved recognition in their own rights.
Before setting off, we divided the country into very broad areas of East,South and West (although we had to go east for three hours from ours first!), North and Midlands, and then everybody else we hadn’t got to regardless of where they were. Each area was tackled over a weekend, starting at the furthest area from home: heading east to begin with last year’s judges, the Cook family and the Albany/Alcroft herd. A long-established, medium-sized herd with calves by Nidderdale Aladdin and running with new young bull Castleton Stanley over 200 acres of Fen land alongside their herd of Traditional Herefords. A lovely herd which set a benchmark to work from as we continued on our way.
From there, we went further east to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s NWT Hovering herd. This is a prefix that has been in existence for around 10 years as a conservation grazing-only herd. Now under new management, they have become a breeding herd, currently breeding to supply their own conservation grazing cattle, with future plans to supply other conversation grazing operations with cattle that are quiet, easy to manage and thrive on conservation land living out all year round. They are aiming to keep 15 to 20 breeding cows with a total of 150 to 160 head of cattle grazing approximately 2000 acres. With a really nice, even foundation group of heifers purchased from Southhill and Albany, and the lovely bull Castleton Jupiter, we saw a very nice first crop of calves. This herd was definitely one that caught my eye and earned its place as winner of the Best New Herd category.
Leaving Norfolk Wildlife Trust, we then met up with Anne-Marie Hamilton and Liam Reilly of the Woodbastwick herd, who had an impressive group of steers grazing 180 hectares of public access common land. From there we headed toward the village of Woodbastwick, where we drove around in the dark with no phone signal for an hour or two, as we’d forgotten to get an address for our next destination. We knocked on a few doors and asked a few ‘locals’ but could not find the farm. Eventually, we found some higher ground (not that easy in Norfolk) and got a phone signal, phoning Sarah Cook for secretarial support and an address to eventually arrive at for a lovely evening and much-appreciated bed for the night.
The following day, we had the rest of our Woodbastwick tour seeing these important and historic cattle in their wonderful parkland setting. Anne-Marie and Liam are the new custodians/guardians of this herd and have a lot of enthusiasm and future plans for how it will develop, with aims to grow the herd to around 40 cows. They are a high health status herd currently running two bulls - Hevingham Dionysus and Woodbastwick Dimple Haig - with some lovely calves at foot by Dimple Haig and Lordswood Shelby. With what for me would be the daunting task of a farm tenancy, along with the added responsibility of becoming guardians of such an historic and important herd while still making it profitable, I could not fail to be impressed with how they were already making a good start, building on their existing contract to supply lamb to Marks & Spencer for their premium range, to which they’ve now added beef. They have also set up a direct to the public freezer shop, which saw several visiting customers while we were there. So, for their enthusiasm and planning, I felt they were worthy winners of the Enterprise Trophy.
We then headed south through Suffolk, calling with some never-before-visited family for lunch, then down to Essex and the Woodland herd of Jean Fuller. This was a lovely herd of cattle doing extremely well on some beautifully managed land with access to woodland for shelter. These cattle really caught my eye with a good age spread of cows in-calf to the young bull Tollesbury Cornelius and some lovely calves at foot.
Moving further south through Essex took us on to Angie Dunn’s De Beauvoir herd, a big name in the breed, these days falling under the small herd category and this was another herd I’d been looking forward to visiting. Some lovely cows running with new bull Alcroft Gladiator, and calves on the ground by Tollesbury Sir Pellinore. A lovely evening, with meal and bed provided, along with some amazing stories of Angie and David Evans’ exploits along with a tour of the 26 acres. A herd, owner, and property of real character.
Next we carried on to the east coast, and to the Tollesbury herd of Vivien St Joseph. Another impressive herd of high health status cattle on 250 acres of arable and permanent grassland. Both British White and Beef Shorthorn cattle are farmed here, run as two separate herds, around 30 Shorthorn and 20 British White breeding cows with the very smart bull Castleton Brenin producing some very nice calves. Weekend one concluded, just a nine hour drive home to do provided there is no traffic on the M25!
Our next trip to the South and West would begin with the Emily herd. The plan was to drive down on Friday night, have a leisurely evening and be bright and early for Saturday morning. However, closed roads around Bath had us lost, heavily fined for entering a clean air zone (never heard of one of them before) and driving in circles until two in the morning when we just pulled into a layby and went to sleep. Anyway, Saturday and the Emily estate. Impressive and amazing on so many levels that I got bored of saying ‘wow’ as I looked round. The largest herd of British Whites totaling around 150 breeding females,and 400 cattle in total, running nine bulls over five farms and around 2500 acres. Another herd following the premium health scheme and some impressive data recording to help get the best from the cattle. There is too much to say to do them justice here, so for a few key points, there are 35 homebred heifers to the bull this year and they are using stock bulls Cadarn Freighter, Castleton Albus, Woodbastwick Dalrymple, Alcroft Gunslinger, Tollesbury Blackbeard and Tollesbury Pirate, amongst others. The cattle are well-managed with a lot of thought and planning, and a very impressive selection of animals have been brought together to form a herd that, if they continue as they have been, I’ve no doubt will at some point in the future be a winner. However, as laid out in my criteria, for me a winning herd should consist of primarily homebred cattle and show improvement through the generations of breeding, so for this reason I awarded the Emily estate runner-up in the Large Herd section.
Leaving Somerset, we headed further west into Devon to the newly established Old Wolford herd of Chris Davis, a small herd with cattle sourced from the Tismans and Castleton prefixes as well as the newly acquired bull Tollesbury Pythagoras, who had only just arrived prior to our visit. With plans to increase stock of British Whites to up to 10 breeding females, the chosen foundation stock should give a good start as it expands.
Another day another herd, in Wiltshire this time and the Arnescote herd under the management of Tim Sykes. This was an impressive set up, currently running around 20 breeding females along with the bull Anglesey Wallace, and aiming to expand to around 45. Currently under conversion to organic status, the cattle have access to around 450 acres of grazing on land fertilised by their composting business. The cattle are finished for meat in an abattoir situated only a mile from the farm and sold to their own farm shop and hotel, having been finished on grass at three years of age. I was caught up in Tim’s enthusiasm and far-branching business ventures, all supporting each other based around the British Whites, coming away feeling inspired.
Staying in Wiltshire, next was the Dupree herd of James and Katie Allen. After being fed a barbecue lunch of home produced meat (and very nice too), we had a tour of their small herds of British White and Longhorn cattle which graze their 65 acres, along with Portland and Castlemilk Moorit sheep. They are currently in the process of reducing their Longhorn herd with the aim of building the British Whites up to around 15 to 20 cows. The cattle looked well, showing a large age range including the only non-homebred animal, a 13-year-old cow still retained from their foundation stock, all producing quality calves from the smart bull Tollesbury Moonstone, and so they caught my eye as worthy winners of the Small Herd category.
Another weekend, this time starting in Wales with our closest herd 2½ hours away, the Diskin herd of Lucy Eyre. Already an active member of the Society attending shows and promoting farming through social media, with six pedigree cows along with a number of crossbreds. Lucy has chosen smaller framed cows to suit her wet land, running two bulls - Amaroo Lava Cake and Cadarn Sentinel - producing larger-type calves, finishing steers off grass and retaining heifers to expand the herd. An enthusiastic breeder with some lovely stock brought this herd to its position of runner-up in the New Herd category.
An overnight stay with family and then north, this time to Leeds and the Swillington herd of Jo Cartwright. This is another small organic herd whose owner has long connections with British Whites and actually had a milking herd in the 1970s. These days the herd consists of a small number of Whites with a few Hereford and Hereford crosses. They do not run a bull but are getting excellent results from AI, currently using Castleton Kerfuffle, Dadley Perseus and Leverington Columbus, selecting which of these bulls will best suit each cow, with great results and possibly some of the best calves we’d seen on our trip, earning them the position of runner-up in the Small Herd category.
From Leeds to Rotherham and Geoff Watkins’ Castle House herd, making his 12½ acres at over 1000 feet of elevation work hard to keep his 10 animals including calves and bull Tollesbury Sir Tristan. The stock looked fantastic and are thriving in their windswept setting. We had an enthusiastic and hospitable welcome from Geoff who finishes his steers for home consumption and a few private customers.
We spent another night in Staffordshire followed by a mornings drive to Derbyshire and the Rathborne herd of Sharlotte Amos. A lovely herd consisting of 29 cows and 11 heifers to the bull this year using De Beauvoir Buzzard, as well as putting a few to Shorthorn and British Blue bulls where they were too closely related. They run a paddock grazing system of large paddocks with electric fences, aiming for spring calving, putting heifers to the bull at 12 to 16 months. A very well thought out housing system near the farmhouse had me feeling envious.
From Derbyshire to Cheshire (via an expensive visit to a sofa shop) and we were arriving at the Rosalind herd of Caroline Lovén. This herd is another primarily conservation grazing herd running over about 300 acres of floodplain meadows. The owners are aiming for biodiversity on the farm and have already planted 13,000 trees, dug ponds, and put up owl boxes, and we were lucky enough to see a Kingfisher while we were there. This was a really eye-catching herd of cows doing extremely well on their extensive grazing with a number of homebred bulls on the ground, along with some lovely calves by De Beauvoir Sebastian. They are currently breeding to fulfil their own requirements for grazing animals, but with such lovely stock I feel they need encouraging to make some of the calves available to other breeders. This herd was to become my runner-up in the Medium Herd category.
Back to family in Staffordshire for the night before heading east again to Leicestershire and the Templar herd of Keith and Ro Harding. This herd impressed me greatly and would ultimately be my choice for the Best Medium Herd and the overall winners of the Randolph Turpin Trophy. A really lovely herd of even, homebred cattle that are carefully managed and difficult to fault in any way. There is not an animal amongst them that I wouldn’t be proud to have in my own herd, including the lovely bull Alcroft Goldeneye looking long, well-muscled and impressive.
From Leicestershire to Warwickshire and the Lordswood herd of James Brain and Libby McGinn. Another in the Small Herd category with nine cows calving from January to May, and three-year-old bull Lordswood Finley running with the cows all year round. Heifers are put in-calf at around 14 months to calve as two-year-olds. James is producing some lovely cattle with many prize winners amongst them. Bulls not sold to other herds, or retained for breeding, are finished at around 18 months and sold to a local farm shop.
Another weekend, another trip away to Staffordshire, getting caught in traffic and arriving late at Dave Elliotts Jadebeam herd. A medium-size herd of 13 breeding cows along with some red polls and crosses. Dave has a real enthusiasm for his cattle and is concentrating on trying to produce red points, using red point bull Fromus Reuben and hoping to increase his herd to around 30 cows to run over his 90 acre farm.
Staying in Staffordshire, we moved on to Eddie Gibson’s newly formed Moorland herd, where we were met at the gate by a pack of rather nice Portuguese cattle dogs. This is a 90 acre, high health organic farm producing venison, lamb from Greyfaced Dartmoors, pork from Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, and beef from British Whites, with the deer, sheep and cattle grazing the fields, and the pigs roaming in woodland. They have invested heavily in the business with a new on-farm butchery, a shop in the local town and a burger van for event catering. New cattle housing and a good handling system support an expanding beef enterprise with British Whites at the heart, with Oldington and Cleland cows and the smart looking bull Cadarn Crusader. Impressed by the growing business I awarded them the runner-up for the Enterprise Trophy.
Heading back towards home, we stopped next in Shropshire and the Oldington herd of the Pennington family. I last visited this herd around 10 years ago was really impressed with how the herd has improved in that time, which is exactly what we are or should all be striving for. A lovely homebred herd of long, large framed cattle with lovely calves and two nice bulls, Carthy Boris and Cadarn Dump Truck who is still serving cows and winning in the show ring at 11 years of age, a good advert for the longevity of the breed. This herd would ultimately be my Large Herd winner.
Home for the night and then back out to visit the last herd on a day trip calling at the Castleton herd of the Wright family. A large herd of 28 cows, running with two bulls: Willow Park George and Castleton Ken. All very impressive and representing many generations of careful home breeding, producing stock which will appear on many pedigrees both past and present. It was particularly nice to see Castleton Ken, who I’ve known and admired for several years as a show bull, out with the cows in his working clothes looking toned, fit and generally amazing. I would go on to award Castleton Ken Best Stock Bull.
I would like to finish by thanking everybody for their time and hospitality and special thanks to Jane for her support, photography, note taking and map reading skills, along with making the whole experience both possible and enjoyable.
The BWCS is grateful to Mark and Jane for taking the time to judge the National Herd Competition and for producing such a thoughtful write-up! The 2025 competition will be judged by 2024 winners K & RP Harding of the Templar herd, with entries open until the end of June via the BWCS Office (contact Sarah Cook).
National Herd Competition Trophy Winners 2024
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