DANISH NATIONAL SHOW JULY 2007

By Ken Brown

 

It was a great honour to be asked to judge the Danish National

Show and I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 days that we spent in Herning.

 

In general the cattle displayed excellent confirmation, they were good on their feet and many were big for their age. I was particularly pleased to see that they were all well filled out behind the shoulder - this is an area of great weakness in many highland cattle. My only criticism was that some females had poor heads and down sloping horns which is both unattractive and contrary to the Breed standard. 

                                                                                                             Ken Brown judging Whiteman II af Haller

 

The bull classes were very interesting. The oldest bull, Råsted Gl. Mølle Sofus was a tremendous size weighing close to a tonne; he had excellent confirmation and a good head but was not the best walker. The 3 year old bull from Assenbjerg was outstanding and I could not fault him - great confirmation with exceptional muscling at the back end, nice head and full of breed character. He was a worthy Champion and will surely be a very successful sire.

 

In the younger bulls I was amazed at the weights of the 15 month old bulls. Nordgaard had 2 exceptional young bulls in this class but the width, hair, head & character of Bent-Ove made him a clear winner. Although not quite as big as their other bull displayed all the traditional Highland attributes and he may be

Champion Assenbjerg Urani-Urd                             hard to beat next year.

 

The best cow came from Råsted Gl. Mølle with Nicoline who was the most attractive and not overweight - I do not like to see breeding cows carrying excess flesh. The younger cow Tora Stillebæklund was very feminine but smaller and carrying more weight. The younger cow class was not so good with many overweight and with poor horns.

 

My Champion female was the oldest heifer on display, Morag 32nd of Woodneuk who was in immaculate condition and beautifully shown by her handler - lovely feminine head, long flowing hair and she obviously enjoys being shown! Just behind her was a top quality black heifer Victoria Dubh af Barup - this one is going to be a tremendous cow. There were a number of top quality yearlings but the pick for me was Bolet of Westergård, a really sweet young heifer - watch out for her in the showring next year!! Not far behind were Birthe af Haller and Pilkmose Bodil both very good heifers beautifully shown.

 

Assenbjerg were clear winners of the group despite the fact that their heifer seemed to take a dislike on me!! Judging a group is difficult as the 3 best animals may not make the best group but Anni and Peter's     Nordgaards Bent-Ove  

animals were well matched.

 

Congratulations to all exhibitors on a fine display of cattle and the excellent way that all the animals were shown. Finally many, many thanks from Eva and myself for your very generous hospitality and also for inviting our Danish friends to the BBQ - we really had a great time.

 

Ken Brown

 

The Nationel Show 2008 will take place 4.-6. July in Herning. Highland judging is 4th of July.

Another big Danish Show is Roskilde Dyrskue (Roskilde Show). This year Willy Thomson from Scotland will come and judge the Highlanders. The show is in Roskilde (20 km from Copenhagen) and the date is 6.-8. june 2008. Highland classes is 6th of June and champion classes 7th of June.