Suffolk E-Newsletter Issue 4

September 2012

Welcome

Morrisons Announce Partnership with the Suffolk Sheep Society

2012 is fast becoming an annus horribilis for the farming industry. Unusual weather pat-terns have played havoc to shows, events and harvesting throughout the British Isles. Weather extremes around the world have resulted in lower yields which has ultimately led to increasing feed costs. Commercial units have been prioritising fodder conservation during the early ram sales which has had a negative effect for all breeds. However, the demand for Suffolk rams has been on the increase as producers seek fast growth rate.

Morrisons is the UK’s fourth largest food retailer with four hundred and seventy seven stores and spe-cialise mainly in food and grocery - the weekly shop. Uniquely they source and process most of their fresh food through their own manufacturing facility which provides close control over provenance and quality. Morrisons only sell 100 per cent British fresh beef, lamb, pork and poultry and employ more staff in store than any other retailer including butchers, bakers and fishmongers. Every week, 11.5 million customers pass through their doors and more than 131,000 staff across the business work hard each day to deliver great service to their customers.

Morrisons is bolstering its commitment to British farming yet further by announcing its intention to launch a traditional lamb product. The retailer has entered into a partnership with the Suffolk Sheep Society to encourage the use of the breed and develop a new pricing mechanism that brings more stability to the lamb sector. Negotiations are ongoing between both organisations since the initial launch at NSA Scotsheep in June.

Once the program is fully up and running, Morrisons will work closely with a pilot group of British farmers to retail around 1,500 Suffolk lambs a week. The Suffolk breed has been chosen because of its ability to offer a quality product, with a rich flavour and texture, as well as meeting the needs of the commercial farmer. The Suffolk Society has created the brand identity, “Quality Suffolk Lamb” which will ultimately be used to differentiate Suffolk lamb over the counter.

Andrew Loftus, Farm Operations Manager at Morrisons, said: “Following the success of our traditional beef and pork, we wanted to extend the program to lamb as well. We’ve been working with Suffolk sires on our own farm for three years now and the breed was an obvious choice”. “The future of Brit-

ish farming is important to us and the extra confidence we hope this prod-uct gives to our farmers will be very welcome. It will also add another superb product to our butcher’s counter and we’re confident our cus-tomers will love it.”

Dr Lewis McClinton (Suffolk Society CEO), Michael Weaver (Chairman), Martyn Jones (Morrisons) and Ron Greig (Vice Chairman) at the launch of this initiative at NSA Scotsheep

NSA events

21st September Eastern Region Ram Sale (Melton Mowbray)

24th September Wales & Border Main Ram Sale (Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells)

For more information on any of the above events go to www.nationalsheep.org.uk

Photograph Copyright The Society would like to ad-

vise that any image forwarded

for use in Society Publications

must be owned by members

and is not subject to Copyright

cost. Any image that is subject

to Copyright will be met by the

member.

Are you planning a production, dispersal or female sale? If you are preparing a sale the Society can create your catalogue for a total cost of £25+Vat. All you have to do is provide the Society with a list of registered sheep in the preferred order. The information can then be ex-tracted from Basco and placed into a word document, ready to send via email. The Society is happy to place the completed cata-logue on the Society website to aid in promoting the sale. The Society would appreciate any pictures and reports from sales, shows etc. so this can be added to the website or used in Society publications.

Do You Need a Catalogue Prepared for a Sale?

If there is an event you want to advertise, why not do it

here. Contact the Society with the details and we’ll do the

rest!

Catherine Fleck is Leaving

Email: lewismcc@suffolksheep.org catherinef@suffolksheep.org zara@suffolksheep.org

www.suffolksheep.org

Society Website Members can advertise semen, stock rams and general pedigree stock for sale, free on the Society Website. Just send the details, price, photo and contact details to zara@suffolksheep.org

This Newsletter is only as good as EWE make it…if you have any topics that you wish to discuss, or have any

news updates or anything in general please email: zara@suffolksheep.org or post to the Society Office.

The Society would like to inform members that Catherine Fleck is leaving the Society. Catherine has been in the Ballymena office since it moved to Northern Ireland in October 2008. Catherine’s last day will be the 9th November. The Society would like to wish Catherine well for the

future. If anyone would like to contribute to a leav-

ing gift please contact their relevant Council mem-

ber.

Unit B, Ballymena Livestock Market, 1 Woodside Park

Ballymena, BT42 4HG Tel: 028 2563 2342 Fax: 028 2563 2739

Caption Competition kindly sponsored by Natural Stockcare Ltd.

Congratulations to Louise Buckley on winning the Suffolk Caption Competition kindly sponsored by Natural Stock-care. A £25 voucher is on it’s way from Tom! The win-ning caption was ‘Go on Tom, give us a drop!’ The Society would like to thank Tom Stevenson from Natural Stockcare Ltd for his continued support.

Reminders:

2012 FLOCK BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE.

IF YOU WISH TO ORDER A COPY PLEASE CONTACT THE SOCIETY OFFICE.

AUTUMN RETURN FORMS WILL BE DISPATCHED IN OCTOBER, FORMS MUST BE RETURNED TO THE SOCEITY OFFICE

BEFORE THE 30TH NOVEMBER

European Update

Email: lewismcc@suffolksheep.org catherinef@suffolksheep.org zara@suffolksheep.org

www.suffolksheep.org

The national Show in Borger on the 14th July was accompanied by lots of rain. Despite the rain there was plenty of interest from many breeders with some from Germany and Belgium. There was an improvement on the quality of the sheep compared to the 2011 Show. The ram lamb section however was not good with a number of lambs missing power and length. It is striking that despite the lack of length, ram lambs generally showed weak backs. Judge Paul Laeremans from Belgium judged the animals closely, and it was always clear how he placed the animals. Champion in the aged ewe section was the 5 ½ year old ewe of Alexander Dijkman a daughter of a homebred ram. Champion in the aged ram section was Fons van de Vrijthof, a son of Eaton vd Lindhoeve, breeder Walter Liebregts and owned by Dijkman. Champion Shearling Ram was a son of Middelcopper Midas, (sire Murk van de Wijde Blik), bred and owned by van Buuren. The shearling ewe of Ynze Hoekstra was champion in her category; she is a daughter of a homebred ram of Hoekstra,’t Greaneg Hooltpad. 2nd in this class was the ewe of Johan van Buuren, another daughter of Murk and 3rd Alexander Dijkman's ewe, a daughter of above mentioned Fons. In the ewe lambs class 1st and 2nd were both from van Hoekstra's flock (van 't Hooltpad) both daughters of Baileys Bozzi (sire Rhaeadr Rossi). Champion ram lamb was also from Hoekstra (sired by Solwaybank Sting). This lamb will soon move to the Branderlicht flock of Jos and Noel Kuipers. 2nd in this class was a Haddo High Voltage son, from the Redcreek flock. After the final class Hoekstra's shearling ewe was Overall Champion and Reserve Overall Champion was his ram lamb. A great Hoekstra Show!

Suffolks Fit for a Queen!

Unit B, Ballymena Livestock Market, 1 Woodside Park

Ballymena, BT42 4HG Tel: 028 2563 2342 Fax: 028 2563 2739

Suffolk 4 - Data Deadline -

Friday 5th October - Publication 22nd October

Could recording members please ensure that all relevant information is submitted and lambs are Birth Notified before the above dates to be included in

Suffolk Evaluations

For more details contact Signet.

Tel: 0247 647 8829 Email: signet@eblex.org.uk

Signet Analysis Dates

The Society currently has a selection of old Year books and Flock books. If you are miss-ing some from your collection, please contact the Society and we may be able to help.

2012 Show Season Congratulations to all winners at this years events and well done to exhibitors, specta-tors, Judges and photographers who braved torrential conditions at nearly every event to support the Suffolk breed. There will be a full report on the major events in the 2013 Yearbook. Results and photos are also available on the website.

While street and garden parties are held to celebrate the Queens Jubilee, Ray Woolway makes sure his ewe isn't left out of the celebrations!

Unit B, Ballymena Livestock Market, 1 Woodside Park

Ballymena, BT42 4HG Tel: 028 2563 2342 Fax: 028 2563 2739

The Suffolk Sheep Society accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of contributed articles or statements appearing in this

magazine and any views or opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Suffolk Sheep Society, save where other-

wise indicated. No responsibility for loss or distress occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of

the material in this publication can be accepted by the authors, contributors, editor or publishers. The editor reserves the

right to make publishing decisions on any advertisement or editorial article submitted to this magazine and to refuse publi-

cation or to edit any editorial material as seems appropriate to the editor. The Suffolk Sheep Society does not endorse any

goods or services advertised, nor any claims or representations made in any advertisement in this magazine. No part of this

publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyholder and publisher, application for which should

be made to the publisher.

For the first time the Suffolk Society will have a presence at Eurotier as part of the UK pavil-ion which has been organised by Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. The event is held in Hanover, Germany between the 13th to 16th November. Two pedigree Suffolk rams that were exported to Germany will be on the stand along with promotional material translated into several European languages. Previous promotional events in Romania yielded export orders for both semen and livestock. A full list of interested parties will be added to the Society website on our return.

Euroteir

To advertise in the Suffolk Sheep Society 2013 Year Book details / artwork must be received by email to zara@suffolksheep.org

no later than 30th November. Prices are as follows - Members Commercial Full Page - £250 Full Page - £300 Half Page - £125 Half Page - £150 2 Pages - £400

Could all Club and Branch Secretaries please have their reports with the Society via email to zara@suffolksheep.org no later than 30th November; any reports not received by this date will not be included in the 2013 Yearbook. Club Secretaries, reports should be no longer than 400 words

and have a maximum of two pictures.

Branch Secretaries reports should be no longer than 600 words and have a maximum of

three pictures.

Yearbook Advertising

Branch & Club Reports

2012 Show Results

Email: lewismcc@suffolksheep.org catherinef@suffolksheep.org zara@suffolksheep.org

www.suffolksheep.org

Don’t forget to join us on Facebook Royal Ulster Show - Judge, G. Mackie, Drimmie

Champion P Donnelly Shearling Ewe LRT:11:008 R. Champion AJ & NAJ Robinson Aged Ewe 73A:L54 Three Counties Show - Judge, M. Stuart, Birness Champion C J Holmes Ram Lamb DND:12:005 Res Champion V E & B M Samuel Ewe Lamb Y18:12:005 Royal Highland Show - Judge, A. Wilson, Shannagh Champion R H Wilson Aged Ewe FNV:L111 Res Champion R H Wilson Ram Lamb FNV:12:090 Eire Suffolk Championships, Athenry - Judge, P. Machray, Middlemuir Champion S O’Keeffe Aged Ewe BYD:L30 Res Champion P O’Keeffe Shearling Ewe 33H:11:087 Great Yorkshire Show - Judge, S. Brown, Capielaw Champion P Lupton Aged Ewe KXL:N4 Res Champion Lilburn Estates Shearling Ewe G34:11:107 Royal Welsh Show - Judge, M. Weaver, Perrinpit Champion D J Harvey Shearling Ram A12:N122 Res Champion D G Jones Shearling Ewe NAT:11:013

The next Council Meeting will be held on Thursday 27th September if you have any issues that you wish to be raised at this meeting please contact your local council representative or the Soci-ety Office.

South of Ireland Branch Sale - Roscrea

Top Price €3,200gns for W&R Wilson, Castleisle Average €1,087.01

National Sale - Shrewsbury Top Price 17,000gns for J G Douglas, Cairness

Average £1,367.92 Northern Area Branch Sale - Stirling

Top Price 28,000gns for RH Wilson, Strathisla Average £2,099.20

Northern Ireland Branch Premier Sale - Ballymena Top Price 1,700gns for P Donnelly, Donrho

Average £606.09 Carlisle & Northern Counties Society Sale - Carlisle Top Price 2,800gns for J A Gibb, Cairnton

Average £561.29 NSA Wales & Border Early Ram Sale, Builth

Top Price 1,200gns for M. Evans, Rhaeadr Average £561.29

2012 Society Sale Results

Christmas time is on its way! Why not buy that special someone something from the Suffolk Shop and

have it personalised with their Flock code. Gift Vouchers are also available.

Take a look on the website for more details and images. PLEASE ORDER EARLY TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT!