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East Anglian Jersey Cattle Club

2007 Review

Where does one start? A very unusual year for weather, far too hot and dry in April and then, continuous rain for May, June and July, but a much better Autumn, thankfully most members escaped flooding which caused so much havoc in other parts of the country. Once again FMD has returned and I know everyone takes all the necessary precautions, but it does disrupt ones farming, eg: not being able to take the cows across a road, not being able to get rid of bull calves, etc etc. Now we have Blue Tongue and just lately Avian Flu, we just need Swine fever and then will have had all the notifiable diseases!!

Our Committee and AGM meetings have once again been at Punchards farm and we are truly grateful to Jonathon and Ann Tomkinson for inviting us, both meetings went well, at our AGM the cups were presented by Mrs Tomkinson :

Ruggles Brise Cup for the highest yielding cow in 305 days. Joint 1st Elmdon Farms Ltd Elmdon Sharpe Juiletta, and Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Lesters Karen 890 kgs Fat and Protein. Reserve Elmdon Farms Ltd Elmdon Poring Kiley 873 kgs Fat and Protein.

Eglington Cup for the highest yielding herd in 305 days. Mr and Mrs Mahon 680 kgs Fat and Protein. Reserve Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 655 kgs fat and Protein.

Postlethwaite Cup for the highest total % Fat and Protein Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 9.64 % Reserve NW Moore and Sons 9.23 %.

Jerseys were shown at the Suffolk Show in the Any other Breed. Bolderston and Partners had the Champion Jersey, Tetfor Hall Dani who then went on to win the Interbreed Champion and the Interbreed Pairs. The Royal Norfolk Show have their own classification and the Champion was from NW Moore and Sons with Depwade Happy Whisper 6th they also had the Reserve Interbreed Champion and the Interbreed Pairs. Due the FMD in August there were no cattle classes at the Aylsham Show.

We had a very interesting visit to the well known Holstein breeder James Alston at Garboldisham on Wednesday 6th June. Last year he was one of the six finalists for the NMR Gold Cup. He showed us round his farm and explained his system for keeping 300 cows, he was interested in Biomass but the cost of setting up a system was draconian. Afterwards we went to the White Horse Pub for sandwiches.

Our Autumn visit, after a Committee meeting, was to Robert and Jean Fuller’s Brickwall Farm, they sold their Chalkney Herd of Jerseys 11 years ago and have very successfully diversified into building barns into 4 self contained cottages, calf building into a conference room and have a variety of business using the converted buildings. We viewed the accountants office converted from an old barn next to the lake, how they manage to do any work I don’t know with such beautiful surroundings! We saw their herd of British White cattle and others in the distance, would have liked to have seen them nearer but we were observing the procedures for Foot and Mouth precautions. We had a lovely day and thank them for their hospitality.

Twenty four members and friends met at the Scole Inn for our Dinner, we had a lovely social evening, good company and good food! Raised £60 for our RABI raffle and thank everyone for their generosity.

Happy Christmas, let us hope 2008 will be a better disease free year, and milk prices still continue to rise.

January 2007

Another year has nearly gone, the club this year hasn’t been very active, but our few gatherings are very sociable. We are very grateful to Jonathon and Ann Tomkinson for hosting our Committee and AGM at their farm, it is difficult to find a venue, if we have them in a Pub, we generally have the Public wandering through!

We had our Committee meeting at Punchards Farm in April, sorted out Club matters, had a delicious lunch, prepared by one of Mrs Tomkinson’s friends, then our AGM was held in the afternoon, unfortunately we never have many people to the AGM due to the decline of members in the club. We had as our guest speaker Mr Richard Johnson from Genus to tell us about the Jersey Breeders Club, before this, he presented the Club Cups :

RUGGLES BRISE CUP for the highest yielding cow in 305 days. Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Khans Kuckoo 868 kgs Fat and Protein. Reserve Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Khans Kristmas 864 kgs Fat and Protein.

EGLINGTON CUP for the highest yielding herd in 305 days also went to Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate herd with an excellent production performance of 666 kgs Fat and Protein. Reserve Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 641 kgs Fat and Protein.

POSTLETHWAITE CUP for the highest total % Fat and Protein at 9.45 % was won again by Mr and Mrs Tomkinson Dunallan herd. Reserve Mr and Mrs Roper Tetfor herd at 9.21 %

Jerseys were shown at the Suffolk , Royal Norfolk and Alysham Shows, at the Suffolk the Jerseys were in the Any other Dairy Breed, the Champion Jersey was from John Cawston’s Poringland herd Poringland Eve 6th . The Royal Norfolk Show Champion Jersey was from A.Bolderston Marshview herd, Tetfor Hall Dani, reserve from NW Moore and Sons Depwade herd, Depwade Ya Ya 2nd Aylsham Show the best Jersey in the Any other Breed was from C W Cawston Poringland

Our herd visit this year was to Upgate Farm on Wednesday 14th June in conjunction with the East Anglian Guernsey Breeders Club. We held a small stock judging competition, the well know Aryshire breeder Bill Doigh as our Master Judge. He had one class of Guernsey’ s and one of Jerseys to deal with We also held a competition to guess the combined predicted 305 day lactation yields for the class of 6 in milk Jerseys. The actual total was 41,489 kgs Mr Ralph Moore guessed 41550 kgs and Mrs Ann Tomkinson got close at 39,000kgs, not bad! The stock judging was won by Mrs Jane Parfitt a member of the Jersey Club, the runner up was Mr Ronnie Smith a member of the Guernsey Club. Unfortunately the weather was really cold for the time of year and it was disappointing not to have more members (busy time)? 15 members from both clubs attended. We held a small raffle for the RABI and raised £36 which I think was brilliant and thank everyone who brought a raffle prize and also bought tickets.

Our last social function was our Dinner held at the Scole Inn, attended by 25 members and friends, a most enjoyable evening. Our raffle raised £59 for RABI

Congratulations to Louise and Tom Edwards on the birth of their daughter Hannah born on Saturday 21st October, a sister for William .

2006 AGM
At our AGM the Clubs cups were presented by Richard Johnson of Genus who after the formal business spoke on the Jersey Breeders Club.

Immediately after this the Officers of the Club were elected
Chairman: Bobby Roper (Tetfor)
Vice Chairman: Nick Dain
Treasurer: Frank Mahon (Upgate)
Secretary: Su Mahon (Upgate )

Our Herd Visit to the Bolderston Partnership is on Wednesday 14th June at 11am. in conjunction with the East Anglian Guernsey Cattle Breeders.

They have a herd of Jerseys (Marshview) a herd of Holsteins and one of Ayrshires, also some Guernseys. A stock judging competition will be held in the morning, and please take a picnic lunch. should be an interesting day.

2005 Club Review

Our year started with a committee meeting held at the Pub in the Rat Bar at Rattlesden in February, once again we put the Jersey world to rights! On a serious note, its good to hear that the Society is now on an even keel. We sorted out our calendar for the year, no call for evening meetings, no one would turn up, as all milking cows.

At our AGM, held at the Nickerson Building, Woolpit, we enjoyed a nice lunch before the AGM, but had no speaker, so we were through the AGM business very quickly.

Presentation of Cups:
Mrs Abell presented the cups as follows:

Ruggles Brise Cup for the highest yielding cow in 305 days 1st and Reserve Mr and Mrs Mahon Upgate Lesters Karen 1090 kgs Fat and Protein and Upgate Alfs Illiana 940 kgs Fat and Protein.

Eglington Cup for the highest yielding herd in 305 days 1st Mr and Mrs Mahon 650 kgs Fat and Protein, Reserve Mr and Mrs Cawston 630 kgs Fat and Protein.

Postlethwaite Cup for the highest total % fat and Protein. Mr and Mrs Tomkinson 9.51 % Reserve Mr and Mrs Cawston 9.07 %

Election of Officers:
Chairman Mrs Tomkinson
Vice Chairman: Mr Roper
Treasurer: Mr Mahon
Secretary: Mrs Mahon

We had been invited by Jenny and Barry Daw last year for the club to visit their farm, so we joined everyone in June on the Society’s Open day. Ten members of our club attended with the youngest at eleven months, we all enjoyed the day and it was a pleasure to see such a lovely herd, our youngest member William was very good and the highlight of his visit was the cows! He thoroughly approved (a chip off the old block!) There was a stock judging competition held on the day, this was won by Louise Edwards, the mother of our youngest member!

The show results:-
Suffolk Show Champion D & C Strachan Rapidbay UK Whistler’s Let’s Dance. Reserve Champion CR Cawston Poringland Perfection 4th

Royal Norfolk. Champion C R Cawston Ltd. Poringland Perfection. Reserve Champion Bolderston Partners. Tetfor Voo Joanne

Congratulations to the Strachan Family for their success in the 2005 Great Taste Awards of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers, where they were awarded a Gold medal for their Greek style Yoghurt.

James Strachan and Candice Borland are to be congratulated on their success at the All Coloured Breeds Show, they had the Supreme Champion Jersey Calf with Rapid Bay – UK Rumours Radiance who was also the Reserve Interbreed Champion. They had success in two classes standing 1st and 2nd with Rapid Bay -UK Rumours Radiance and Rapid Bay-UK Rendezvous and Rapid Bay-UK JJ Lets Dance was first in her class with their heifer Rapid Bay –UK JJ Symphony second. Katherine Strachan was Interbreed Champion Handler with a Holstein.

Our Autumn visit in conjunction with the English Guernsey Cattle Society was at Mr and Mrs Jason Salisbury Guernsey herd at Shrubland Park, Coddenham. Before this we had a committee meeting at the Sorrell Horse Pub, and after lunch went first to look round the gardens at Shrubland Hall. The Hall is now a very expensive Health Club, but we enjoyed looking round the gardens and talking to the Guernsey members who had come from all over the UK. After our tour we went up to the farm to see the cows, and also to look at Mr and Mrs Salisburys’ very successful cheese business, we were able to purchase the cheeses on offer.

Our Dinner held at Scole Inn on Friday 21st October nearly had to be cancelled due to lack of support, we managed to muster 15 members and had a very enjoyable dinner, our raffle raised £33 for RABI. We had to cancel our speaker Andy Reeve from Genus due to lack of numbers.

Congratulations to Glyn Thomas’ sister Sally Bendall who is the first Female Chairman of the National Farm Retail and Markets Association in its 26 year history.

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