I will begin with a very heartfelt thank you to Justin Harmer and the Sussex Cattle Society for the invitation to come and judge your wonderful breed of Cattle, I am truly honoured.

I should perhaps just introduce myself as doubt many of you will know anything about me. Although now living in Lancashire I spent the first 70 years of my life in Norfolk. My father was herdsman to the Shadwell herd of Red Poll milking cattle until they dispersed in 1964 and went out of milking. By 1965 the Estate had purchased 200 very lively Blue-Grey Heifers, straight out of Ireland to begin a suckler herd suited to the Breckland area which is largely sand and flint over chalk.

My first sighting of the Sussex breed was in a bull purchased along with two Hereford and two Aberdeen Angus. He was a magnificent beast complete with a wonderful pair of horns and in my eyes easily outshone the others! This was quite a novelty to a 12 year old lad who only knew about the Red Poll which was naturally polled of course. I still remember how quiet and well-mannered this bull was.

For my own part, I have judged sheep for 40 years and cattle for around 15 and now having retired from livestock farming I am Herd Competitions since 2014. I am currently Vice-Chairman and Northern field officer of the Red Poll Cattle society. The Red Poll is still a dual-purpose breed and is spread throughout the UK. Most herds are run as single sucklers although there still a few enthusiasts milking them, cashing in on the trend for vended whole milk at the farm gate. It remains an absolute pleasure to look at other people’s herds of native cattle.

My first visit was to the Rectory herd belonging to the Faulkner Farm Partnership. Herd manager, Russel Denyer was away on holiday, so I was shown around the winner of the small herd category by stock-woman Serena Puxty. Serena’s passion for this herd was evident from the start. They had just changed bulls and a two-year-old replacement greeted us at the gate. He has a lot to live up to as his predecessor had left a real stamp of quality on this year’s calf crop. The yearling heifers and steers were full of quality too, very well grown and in prime condition. I left this herd thinking it was very easy to see why they had won the small herd competition, I was also thinking the other two herds will need to be pretty good to be better than this.

The next stop was the Maygate herd, winner of the Intermediate class, belonging to D J Spanton and Mrs FA Paterson. I was shown around the herd by Richard Spanton, David’s son and it was once again immediately apparent how passionate he was about their animals and indeed the farm. I was surprised by the variation in soil types and how they are managed, especially under the drought conditions of this year. The cattle looked really well, especially this year’s calves. The stock bull was very impressive too. I know that stock can often do really well in a dry year and this reflected through everything I saw. When I left this herd I was aware that I had a very difficult decision to make.

Last stop was the large herd winner, the Oxendean herd belonging to S. & J. Carr. Stephen showed me around all the cattle together with herd manager John Foley. I know from experience how difficult it can be to put together and then maintain a large herd. With 80 cows to the bulls and a further 31 heifers in calf I was so impressed that this herd has managed to retain a type of female, largely through careful selection of bulls. Again, I saw a very diverse range of soil types spread over a very large distance. This allowed for out wintering of young stock on the free draining chalk based fields. All the steers and a few heifers were finished on farm and fed into the organic food chain.

So, upon leaving here I had a very tough choice to make.

If I was looking for the most passionate about the breed, or the most knowledgeable about the breed or indeed the best stockmanship then it would have been a three-way dead heat! As it is about all of those things as well as the cattle themselves, I looked more towards an evenness of type within each herd. and was surprised to learn that the breed is adding breeding from other breeds to continue trying to improve, via the use of bulls and cows. It’s perhaps not for me to say but I think you have such a fantastic breed already which in my eyes needs no further input from outside as you already have everything you could possibly need. I have been so impressed with the quality of the udders, many native breeds have already lost this important feature of the true suckler cow.

So, my champion herd is the Oxendean herd belonging to S. & J. Carr. The attention to bull selection, the type of cow throughout the herd and the fantastic udders being the main deciding factors. It has been a privilege and an absolute pleasure to be allowed to judge your cattle. I’m going to finish by once again thanking your Chairman, Justin Harmer for driving me round.