Stylish South Devon female sells for 6,800gns at society sale

Once again the South Devons’ record price has taken a big leap, this time at the Society’s autumn show and sale at Bristol, with the stylish female champion selling for 6,800 guineas.

With the demand showing no sign at all of slowing for good pedigree stock, the catalogue attracted a number of new buyers to swell the existing crowd of breeders, with animals finding new homes in Wales, the West Country, and the Midlands, and average prices reflected the continued upward trend in interest in the breed.

Breed Secretary, Caroline Poultney said, “The high health status at Society sales together with the excellent breeding quality of the animals forward offers real value for money for buyers.”

Judge Mr Ian Rounsevell from St Veep, near Lostwithiel in Cornwall selected his Champion Male from The Tully Partnership’s Waddeton herd which had the two best polled bulls forward, by herd competition winning sire Z Eyton SAS Illya 1. Champion was Z Waddeton Illistram 11, out of Waddeton Ann 97 who goes back to Edmeston breeding. Reserve Champion, Z Waddeton Illistram 9, was awarded the Thornton Cup for most points in Performance and Inspection.

In the female section of the Show, the most points in Performance and Inspection went to M E & T E Broome’s Welland Valley Primrose 23 from Leicestershire. The Female Championship was awarded to an in-calf heifer from R K Rundle’s Newquay herd – Kestle Tulip 86 (T) by Lumbylaw Leo 2 and out of Kestle Tulip 57. Reserve Champion was Kestle Buttermaid 99 by the same sire. Best polled female was from The Tully Partnership’s Brixham herd, for an in-calf heifer by the same sire as the Champion Male, Z Waddeton Sally 50.

In the Sale ring the Judge’s decisions were fully vindicated both in the male and female sections. Top priced bull was the Champion, Z Waddeton Illistram 11, selling for 4,600 guineas to P S & A P Rowe, Trewint, Menheniot, Cornwall. Next highest was Mr W H D Scott’s polled bull, Z Grove Charlemagne 66, selling to J C Jackson & Son, Swadlincote, Leicestershire for 3,000 guineas.

The female champion, Kestle Tulip 86 (T) was also the record high priced female, selling to Mr R Hadley from Leamington Spa for 6,800 guineas. Next highest was M E & T E Broome’s Welland Valley Primrose 23, selling to M A & C Sandbach & Son from Wadebridge, Cornwall, for 3,800 guineas.

They were followed by two other smart heifers from the Kestle herd – Dorothy 169 and Buttermaid 99 – who each sold for 3,000 guineas to Mr R J Dimond, Shepton Montague, Somerset, and Daylesford Organic Farms, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, respectively. Daylesford Organic Farms also acquired A H & E M Bartley’s Mutterton Honeysuckle 3 for 3,000 guineas, together with five other heifers.

The dispersal sale of the Monkton herd from Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, from Mr T Gareth Davies attracted plenty of interest, with the top price of 2,400 guineas for a well-structured bulling heifer by X Monkton Wellington 2, and two weaned heifer calves reaching 2,050 and 1,500 guineas, all to the same buyer – M A & C Sandbach & Son from Wadebridge, Cornwall.

Averages: 8 halter broken in-calf heifers, average £3,124. 15 bulling 2-year old heifers, average £2,016. 7 bulls, average £2,835.