Royal Northern Agricultural Society presents its Spring Show trophy winners

Prize winners from as far afield as Tomintoul and Invergowrie were welcomed to Thainstone on Wednesday evening as the Royal Norther Agricultural Society held its annual trophy presentation for the winners from this year’s Spring Show.

Opening the evening RNAS president Alan Cumming said: “It has been a truly awful spring and the resilience of country and farming folk has come to the fore once again and lets hope the rest of the growing season is better than the spring has been.”

He introduced Lewis Gallier (Udny) and Scott Dey (inverurie) both young farmer’s club members who have been on a trip to Canada which was supported in part by the Royal Northern and who went on to give a comprehensive presentation of their time. This included time at the world famous Calgary Stampede, both behind the scenes and seeing the levels of input from producers that go into showing at the two week long event. They also discussed their findings on over a dozen site visits including a maple syrup farm, water buffalo herd and fodder packaging unit which ships to the Asian markets.

Trophy presentations were made to those attending, a reduced number from last year as many producers were taking advantage of the good weather for on farm work,

Winners this year included pedigree bulls overall champion a Charolais named Holywell Taco from John and Sandra Middleton, Cowfords, New Pitsligo In the exhibition cattle classes a British Blue cross cow from Michael and Mark Robertson, Fodderletter Farms, Tomintoul stood as champion. Leading the way in the prime sheep section was a pair of 40.5kg home-bred Beltex cross hoggs from Angus Greenlaw, Sheep Park Farms, Huntly. The carcase cattle and sheep competition saw Ross Bros of Wardhead, Strichen win top honours in the cattle (hook) and G & D Anderson, Brucewells, Netherley top spot in classes judged on the hoof.

In the busy horse and pony classes where entries were up year on year, overall champion was Aina B Barnwell from Aberchirder with five-year-old Heaton Seren from the Azgard Welsh Cob Stud.

In the cereals classes, the overall champion was H & H Simpson with a crop of Colosseum wheat. The overall champion silage was from Robert Anderson, Corskellie whilst the overall champion hay was exhibited by A Beattie, Gowanfold. Topping the potato and turnip classes were Royal Northern Spring Show stalwarts J & E Forrester, Aldie Farm, Cruden Bay with the Sunshine variety of potatoes and Doon Major turnips.

The SWI competition to create a picnic was won by Irene Henderson, Linda Kennedy, Heather Harold, Jane Farquhar from Fordyce SWI. In the SAYFC stockjudging competition David Moir, Molly Poiser, McKenzie Kingaby of Strichen A won the team event. Natalie Milne of Turriff B won the individual ladies’ award with David Moir again taking top spot in the individual gents’ competition. Prize for the best outdoor stand at the 2024 Royal Northern Spring Show went to Sellars and the contest for the best indoor stand was won by Gray Feed Services.

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