Bigard Claudia gets royal approval ahead of show

Shane Robert is busy preparing Bigard Claudia for the Royal Guernsey Agricultural Show tomorrow, in the wake of receiving his winner’s certificate from the Princess Royal.

The winner of the cattle competition normally receives their document – signed by the Queen – from the Lt-Governor, but as Princess Anne was visiting the island last week, it was decided that she would present the farmer with his prize for last year’s competition.

Mr Robert said the whole experience was a proud moment for him.

‘It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little boy,’ he said.

‘It’s always been the dream to win the Queen’s Cup, you never think you’re going to do it and, once you have, it’s a hell of an achievement.

‘Meeting Princess Anne was just the icing on the cake.

‘It was a bit nerve-racking really, it’s not something we do every day, we are country people.

‘She’s got a really good knowledge of agriculture, she’s a really clued-up person.

‘She asked me about the cow, she wanted to know who the father was, about our land, and the size of our milk parlour.

‘She knew straight away what she was talking about and mainly asked us questions.’

The cows are judged on a variety of different features such as the shape of their backs, their udders, teat placement and milk records.

Bigard Claudia has been being prepared for around two weeks for the competition, but the heat has played a part in the preparations.

‘It takes a lot of time to get her prepared as she’s in the field all the time, we just need to give her time to get used to being handled,’ said Mr Robert.

‘Last year we clipped her, but as it’s so warm we won’t do it this year as she may get sunburnt.

‘Normally, we’d take all the hair off from behind her ears and around her milk veins to make her look pretty.

‘We’re just going to give her a bit of a polish up, wash her, get all the muck off her and groom her.’

There are 15 dairy farms on Guernsey, which together keep about 2,500 Guernsey cattle and farm just under 8,000 vergees of land for dairy production.

Normally around half of the farms take a cow to the show, which is something Mr Robert would like to see increase, to help preserve the industry and educate the public.

‘About half the farms on Guernsey do it still, it would be nice if all of them did,’ he said.

‘We are just happy to take part and keep the show running as it is unique to Guernsey.

‘When people buy their milk they can know where it comes from and what the breed is all about.

‘The cows are our heritage, we need to make sure we safeguard our land and guarantee the future of the industry.

‘Unfortunately, it’s all finance people in the States now. It used to be old farmers and growers who had retired, they were real Guernseymen who fought for Guernsey.

‘Now our politicians seem to just want to cash in on the land we farm on.’

• The Royal Guernsey Agricultural Show takes place tomorrow at Saumarez Park with judging starting at 10am.