This year’s Royal Three Counties Show, Malvern, proved a perfect stage for our Southdown senior ram Percheron, with this imported French sire taking the breed championship in the Southdown National Show on the first day of the event before going on to take the terminal sire interbreed title and overall interbreed championship too.
Imported two years ago from Benoit Poillot’s flock and owned in partnership with Sid Cook’s Brant flock, Percheron is already proving himself to be a valuable sire, leaving lambs with exceptional growth and loin depth.
Judge for the interbreed at Royal Three Counties, Charollais breeder Charles Sercombe, praised Percheron for his exceptional correctness and carcass attributes. “For a ram of this age and size to be as good as he is on his legs and feet is outstanding. He’s got a tremendous top line and carries himself so well for an older ram. He stood out from the minute I saw him.”
Adding to the spoils were the rest of the Southdown team, with both our shearling ewe and aged ewe standing second in their classes, while our ram lamb stood third. Our ewe lamb then stood fourth, with our group of three lambs taking third spot.
The aged ewe is a full sister to our former stock ram Tadpole, being by ‘The Frog’ and out of Chaileybrook 05/0002, while the gimmer is a daughter of Tadpole out the Golden Valley ewe we purchased at Worcester in 2015.
The ram lamb is a son of another of our imported French sires, Ibanez, and is out of a Sarkozy daughter, while the ewe lamb is a Percheron daughter out of Chaileybrook 15/0010, the female champion from the 125th anniversary National Show in 2016.
Across in the Blue Texels our aged ram ‘Cookie Monster’ took third place in a strong class, while Sophie once again enjoyed a great run in the young handlers classes, taking a third, fourth and fifth in some great classes across the three days of the show.