Welsh Charolais enthusiast, Arwel Owen is to judge a line up of 44 bulls plus 23 females in Carlisle on Friday 22 November at the breed society’s official sale before they come under the hammer sold.
“I’ll be looking for bulls for the commercial man, ones with shape, breed character and physical correctness,” he says. “My top females will have to demonstrate size, plenty of growth and all the attributes of the breed.”
Arwel who established Trefaldwyn, one of Wales’ most noted herds almost two decades ago at Foel, Welshpool, will be fresh from judging Stars of the Future in Stirling last weekend, as well as achieving championship success with his own homebred entry in Welshpool earlier this month.
He explains: “Our five foundation cows selected carefully for their maternal lines – milkiness and calving ease. Since then it has since grown to 40 cows and is very focused on breeding cattle for the commercial producer that will offer performance including very good growth rates together with calving ease
“In the last three years we have used ABRI Breedplan data with high reliability to bring a clearer focus to our selection criteria and accelerate its genetic progress, and we subsequently received the Harman Charolais Genetic Improvement Award 2012 for Wales having made the greatest genetic progress in the country during the previous year.”
Leading priced bulls at auction include Trefaldwyn Usk in Perth at 10,000gns who was in the breed’s top 1% of the performance recorded herdbook and the highest in the day’s catalogue of 317 bulls. Trefaldwyn Valiant took the championship in Carlisle in 2005 and made 8,000gns.