Report Cornwall
Simmental Club Outing to Somerset Sunday 26th July 2009
The unreliable weather probably worked in our
favour as silage or hay making was impossible. 24 members boarded
the First and Last coach at various pick ups from Penzance to
Jamaica Inn and headed for our first rendezvous at Cullompton
Service Station at 11.00 a.m. to meet David Mills. Our next stop was
the successful horse racing yard of Chris Downs. Chris provided us
with a resume of his decision to sell his dairy herd and develop a
training establishment which can accommodate 35 horses at present
with plans to add a further 5 stables. The club members were
introduced to five seasoned campaigners and five new recruits to the
National Hunt game while Chris provided details of their breeding
and family or individual successes. We were then invited to wander
through the immaculate establishment and question the amiable staff
members on Sunday morning duty. Our visit ended with a stop at the
gallops where two of the riders demonstrated a swinging canter with
two five year olds aimed for autumn campaigns at the local
Wincanton, Taunton and Devon & Exeter tracks.
We then moved on to Wishful
Farm where Chris and David Mills greeted us with Pimms on the lawn.
As the members took in the peaceful West Buckland setting and
enjoyed welcome liquid refreshments David gave us a very interesting
historical account of his and Chris’s married life initially working
for the Meat & Livestock Commission running a bull testing station.
David explained how the British Native breeds such as the South
Devon were overshadowed by the food conversion rates of the
continental breeds. When the testing station was closed David and
Chris purchased Greenside and built up their own Simmental herd
while David successfully sourced beef bulls for the many dairy herds
in the south west at the time, selling as many as 150 in one year.
After many show and sale successes David and Chris held a dispersal
sale of their Greenside stock in 1998 and shortly after started the
Wishful herd. Sacombe Wishfull Thinking was their most famous stock
bull. Wishfull Thinking’s semen has been marketed by several A.I.
centres and with 150,000 straws sold his influence is present in the
bloodlines of almost every British Simmental herd registered with
the Breed Society.
David and Christine then took us to a paddock
near the house to view their remaining stock including their most
successful show cow Wishful Lavender who has won 32 continuous
Simmental classes since 2004 with her impressive bull calf at foot
by Skerrington Talent. Wishful Archie and Wishful Vanilla (Wishful
Krumpet’s last daughter) are destined for the 2010 Bristol Sales. We
then moved on to the Blackbird pub where David and Chris treated us
all to a roast beef lunch.
Once again we boarded the
coach and travelled to Heathfield on the outskirts of Taunton to
meet David Barker. We started this visit viewing the dry cows on
some off land and returned to the home farm to see the cows with
calves at foot and young bulls; stopping off to look at the yearling
and two year old heifers on the way. David and Pauline also breed
North Devon and Charolais cattle. The Heywood Simmental herd founded
in 1972, 37 years ago, is one of the oldest herds in the British
Isles and has produced the renown Fanny, Fantastic, Fantasy, Estelle
and Hannadante female lines. The persistent rain failed to diminish
the spirits of host or visitors and David entertained us with some
memorable stories during the walk and the excellent tea that
followed. The walls of Manor Barn provide an illustrated history of
their famed cattle including Esquire and Ensign achieving remarkable
prices at Perth. The
Cornwall club members enjoyed an excellent day and are grateful for
the warm welcome they received and outstanding generosity shown to
them.
