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Two Leading Northumberland Farms
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Two contrasting beef farms in Northumberland will host visitors attending the UK’s national beef event, Beef Expo 2010, which takes place at Hexham Mart on Thursday, May 27.
The visits will take place on the day before Beef Expo (Wednesday, May 26) and will be followed by a two-hour beef conference at Hexham Mart and pre-event dinner that evening in the Westworth Leisure Centre.
Beef Expo 2010 is organised by the National Beef Association with Lloyds TSB Agriculture as major sponsor.
The farm tour hosts will be Jamie Wood, who manages his family’s large-scale commercial beef breeding and finishing enterprise at Prendwick and Rothill Farms, Prendwick, Whittingham, Alnwick, and Howard Forster and Sons, owners of the well-known Piatroon pedigree British Charolais herd at Beaumont House, Humshaugh, Hexham.
Coaches for the farm visits will leave from Hexham Mart at 8.45am and return in time for the conference at 4.00pm. Numbers are limited to 300 and the cost is £15 per person, including coach hire and packed lunch.
“The pre-event farm visits are always a highly popular part of the Beef Expo programme and two excellent Northumberland beef farms have been selected for this year’s tour,” said Hexham and Northern Marts’ auctioneer, Scott Donaldson, who chairs the local organising committee.
“We are grateful to our host farmers for kindly agreeing to host the visits. The two farms are very different – one being a commercial suckler herd and the other a pedigree Charolais herd - and both are certain to create a great deal of interest in view of the quality of the stock and high standard of management.”
Features of Prendwick and Rothill Farms 2400 acre hill unit include the suckler herd of 230 Aberdeen-Angus and Limousin cross cows, and sheep flock comprising 2000 Blackface ewes, 600 home-bred Mule ewes and small flocks of Bluefaced Leicester and Suffolk ewes.
Visitors will also be interested in the new Roundhouse building - a round cattle shed with open sides and canvas roof and integral cattle handling system - where young stock are performing particularly well - and computerised complete diet feeding using the Keenan Mech Fibre PACE system.
Roundhouse business development consultant, Bob Humphreys, and Keenan senior beef specialist, Seth Wareing, will be present during the visit to talk about their systems, along with leading animal behavioural consultant, Miriam Parker, who will discuss cattle handling. Roundhouse Building Solutions and Keenan are joint sponsors of the farm visits.
The Piatroon herd of Charolais cattle is one of the most prominent in the breed and earlier this year won the Harman Charolais Genetic Improvement Award for the most improved herd in England based on performance with a Self Replacing Index which has increased from + 24.7 to + 30.9.
The herd’s successes over the years have included a championship at the breed’s autumn show and sale at Carlisle with a bull which went on to sell for a herd top price of 7500gns.
The herd is a member of the Biobest Herdcare Cattle Health Scheme and Ian MacDougall, business development manager with Biobest, will be on hand to discuss the scheme with interested farmers.
The Piatroon herd is due to be dispersed at Carlisle in October following Mr Forster’s decision to retire.
Tickets for the tour, costing £15 each (inclusive of VAT) must be obtained in advance from Euan Emslie, Event Organiser, on Tel: 01430 441870. Fax: 01430 448432. Mobile: 07718 908523, or E-mail: info@beefexpo.co.uk
Beef Expo 2011 Heading for Newark
Next year’s national beef event, Beef Expo 2011, will be held at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire on Thursday, May 26.
The annual showcase event for the UK beef industry, organised by the National Beef Association, is growing in stature every year and now requires more exhibition space to accommodate an expanding range of livestock demonstrations, educational/advisory exhibits, seminars and trade stands. [more]
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