Long road journey pays off for a prolific champion beef breeder

The Gloucestershire farmer showed cattle and sheep and emerged with rosettes for both. Among his prizes was the Supreme Champion cow with Goldikova, a British Limousin presented on Mr Bishop’s behalf by Sally Lloyd.

The same cow had already triumphed in the Champion Heifer Championship.

Mr Bishop was presented with the Northern Counties Livestock Society’s Trophy by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s honorary show director Bill Cowling and the show’s patron, Lady Halifax, as a packed crowd watched on and took photographs of the winning beast.

After the presentation, Mr Bishop, 46, said: “I’m over the moon. It all comes down to the judge’s decision.

“We have won 27 champion rosettes with five different heifers this summer and to win here means everything. It’s a great opportunity to promote our beef and our sheep.”

Another of his cows, Sharon, a Limousin Cross, won the Any Other Continental Breed Championship and was named runner-up in the Champion Exhibitor Bred Beast section. Mr Bishop’s cattle are sold at Worcester Market to wholesalers and butchers.

Joe Burnett, 19, presented a March-born Beltex Cross in the sheep section on behalf of Mr Bishop too, picking up a championship win for his pair of butchers’ lambs.

Mr Burnett said: “We come to all the shows with the cattle and this time we chucked the sheep on the back of the lorry. It’s the first show we’ve taken them to so it was a shock to win.”

The champion Yorkshire bred, owned and shown beast belonged to Richard Atkinson of Goole, East Yorkshire. His home-bred Limousin Cross, Bramble, presented by Callum Bailey, impressed the judges.