Summer-2023
First, huge apologies for the delay in getting the newsletter out! I appear to have found myself back as Secretary of the Club after a 4-year break, sadly there were no other volunteers so here I am! For those of you who don’t remember me, I am Lisa Davey was Frain, herd prefix is Allabury although I no longer breed Angus sadly, a plan to return one day.
So, we held our AGM back in March which now seems like a lifetime ago. We welcomed Bernard Fry, Vanda Fitzgerald and Alan Eustace to the Committee. Richard our chairman was co-opted on for a year and was at the next meeting elected as Chair for the next year with Richard Tully as Vice chair. I returned as Secretary and Alan very kindly agreed to be Treasurer.
Richard Gilchrist the current CEO of the society very kindly attended the AGM and gave a talk afterwards which was very informative and the members who attended enjoyed, followed by our usual carvery meal at the Devon Hotel.
We have been doing many things behind the scenes to try and revive the club to previous years, many of you will remember our successful 40-year anniversary celebrations and its hard to believe that was 7 years ago and we shall soon have to turn our thoughts to the big 50 in 3 years’ time.
The website was discussed at the AGM and has been the main topic of conversations at our committee meetings since. You will all be pleased to know that the website is now live thanks to Alan our Treasurer. Please use the link aacsw.uk its far from finished but is a work in progress. All members who have signed a GDPR will have their memberships uploaded to the members bit and therefore anyone will be able to contact you with regards to cattle for sale. We will be posting our events and newsletters and the most important part, stock for sale. You can send me photos and any information, pedigrees etc and we will be able to upload that all for you. We hope to include show results etc. Keep checking it out over the next few weeks as we work to build it up. Sadly, the old website is still visible and despite trying we have no way of updating it or removing it so the address above is the only live one that will be updated.
The show season is approaching its end for this year. Southwest breeders were very successful not only locally but further afield. Whilst space doesn’t allow me to put them all in, below is just a run down of main county shows. We did manage a presence at Devon County, and it was lovely to see so many of you attend.
Devon County; Champion Robert Venner, Reserve Oakmoor Angus
Bath and West; Champion and Reserve, Angus Neish
Royal Cornwall; Champion Aradfoot Livestock, Reserve BD Pearse
Further afield saw the Southwest take on the mighty Scotland at the Royal Highland! Huge congratulations to Mike and Melanie Alford from Foxhill taking the championship and reserve went to Angus Neish.
Social Events 2023
We are very honoured to have been invited to the Colhayne herd of Aberdeen Angus by kind permission of Mrs and Mrs B Fry. This will take place on Sunday 24th September 2023 at 1pm at Colhayne Farm, Shute, Axminster EX13 7QQ. We are hoping to get signs out locally. Bernard has done very well in herd competitions here in previous years. He has kindly offered to put on some refreshments for us all too. Please can you contact me if you would like to attend. If you have friends or family who are not members but who may like to spend a lovely afternoon looking at wonderful cattle then bring them along, just a small charge of £5 per head for anyone who isn’t a member of the club. Please spread the word we would love to see this event well supported.
Our usual Winter social has been planned for the 18th of November 2023 at the Devon Hotel. We will be having an after-dinner speaker yet to be confirmed. We are also holding a photo competition! We are going to ask those who attend to be the judges! The various categories are Stock Bull; Cow; heifer; calf born in 2023 plus any photo of your choice; does not have to be angus or farm related. These will be posted on boards, and you will be given the chance to vote for your favourites and the winners will receive certificates. Please could you email your photos to Alan our treasurer at buskinfarm@aol.com stating which photo is for which category. Maybe some of our younger generation would like to get involved! Tickets for the dinner are £25 per person which includes carvery, dessert and tea/coffee. I believe we get a concession for children. Please ring Richard Tully to book 07813 313411 or myself on 07970 793838.
We are also looking ahead to 2024 and early Spring we are planning a couple of talks for an informative social evening with a buffet. Details will follow later in the year.
In other news, it was discussed at our last Committee meeting about how some of our previous members haven’t rejoined; in fact, some of you may be reading this newsletter. We would love to welcome you back as we all look forward to resurrecting the club to its popularity of previous years. It was decided at the last meeting that after years of dedication to the club, being chair for several years and one of the founder members that Colin Hutchings of the Kingsbrompton Herd be made an honorary member. I am sure you will all agree that he is very deserving, and he is very much missed on the show circuit.
We would love to hear from you with any ideas or suggestions you may have for the website and for any of our future events.
Again, I apologise for the tardiness in getting a newsletter out but hopefully I am back on track and please don’t hesitate to contact me with regards to Stock for sale or any other Club matters you wish to raise.
Lisa
Secretary
SWAAC
NEW WEBSITE: aacsw.uk SPREAD THE WORD!