15 teams across the Staffordshire YFC clubs took part in the County Dairy Stockjudging Competition, kindly hosted by The Stone Family, Onecote Grange, Onecote on Thursday 7th April and sponsored by HJ Lea Oakes. Teams consisting of six members judged rings of Friesian Dairy Cows, placing them in orders of merit and giving reasons to the master judges.
This skilled competition, one of the many Staffordshire YFC run throughout the year, helps members with observation, their understanding of the make-up of the animal, market demands, communication and presentation skills. The Junior members judge, place and give reasons on 4 animals, the Intermediate members judge, place and give reasons on 6 animals and the Senior members judge, place and give reasons on 4 animals as well as using the linear method of assessing characteristics.
Following two years of no competitions of this type, the members enjoyed a great evening with a high standard of cows to judge. The overall results were a winning team from Waterhouses YFC with Ashley YFC taking second place, and in joint third place, it was Eccleshall YFC; Lichfield YFC and Uttoxeter JNFU. Individually, members will go forward to represent Staffordshire at the NFYFC Finals being held on Friday 15th July at the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate. They will be as follows: Seniors – Mark Whitehurst of Uttoxeter and Vic Astle of Waterhouses; Intermediates – Peter Cotton of Waterhouses YFC and Ruby Oulton of Ashley YFC; Juniors – Tom Bratton of Eccleshall and Tom Gray of Lichfield.
The evening was concluded with the presentation of awards along with refreshments of filled jacket potatoes, kindly sponsored by HJ Lea Oakes.
For photos from the evening, please click here.
