Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire cow handed top Aberdeen-Angus award from Princess Royal

The championship trophy was presented to Mark Wattie by the Princess Royal who was delighted to see a cow from Aberdeenshire win the Aberdeen-Angus national championship
The championship trophy was presented to Mark Wattie by the Princess Royal who was delighted to see a cow from Aberdeenshire win the Aberdeen-Angus national championship

A cow all the way from Aberdeenshire has come out top at the national show of Aberdeen-Angus cattle at the Royal Norfolk Show at Norwich.

The three-year-old cow, Tonley Lady Heather, was bred and exhibited by father-and-son duo Neil and Mark Wattie from Mains of Tonley, Alford.

She stood reserve breed champion at the Royal Highland Show last month and stepped up to take the breed championship at Norwich in competition at the breed’s national show with entries from 22 herds from across the UK.

“We are absolutely thrilled as it is really a great honour for the Tonley herd to win in competition with the creme-de-la-creme of Angus cattle from all over the country,” said Neil whose son, Mark, led the cow to victory and was presented with the championship trophy by the Princess Royal.

Mark said: “Princess Anne took a great interest in our champion and was amazed we had come all the way down from Aberdeenshire to compete.

“She was delighted that a cow from Aberdeenshire had won.”

The cow, shown with her heifer calf at foot, went on to stand reserve for the individual interbreed beef cattle championship of the Norfolk Show and was one of the winning pair and a member of the best team of five in the competition.

She was also interbreed champion at the Stirling show last month and will be competing at the Great Yorkshire and Turriff shows over the next few weeks.

She is a daughter of the 120-cow Tonley herd’s 19,000gn stock bull, Blelack Evermore, and her mother is also Blelack-bred, having been bought at the Blelack herd’s reduction sale in 2016.

As a 10-month-old heifer, she was Aberdeen-Angus calf champion at both the Black Beauty Bonanza at Thainstone, Inverurie, and the Stars of the Future show at Stirling in November, 2019.

Conversation