On Thursday 25th January, we welcomed over 90 of our producers and their families along with a number of Waitrose and industry representatives to our Skellingthorpe site for the 12th Dovecote Park Carcase Competition.  The decision was made two years ago to change from an annual event to Biannual, and it was a great pleasure after a long absence to host the event once again, and to gather our producers for a day of friendly competition and display of best practice.

 David Gunner, Joint Chief Executive, represented Dovecote Park this year whilst Andy Boulton, Service Counter Buyer, stood for Waitrose on the judging panel. Andy has judged a number of competitions during his long working relationship with Dovecote, and we were delighted to have him on the panel once again. Our guest judge for this year’s competition was Steve Peaty from MLC. Although he does not grade for us directly, Steve is directly involved with establishing and maintaining the MLC standards we ascribe to, and it was a great pleasure to have him lend his expertise to this year’s event.

After careful deliberation from the judges, the rosette for Champion Native Carcase as well as a £500 prize was awarded to SJ and LH Brown, for their submission of a purchased Aberdeen Angus Heifer. The Champion Continental Carcase prize was awarded to TV Davie, for his entry of a purchased British Beef heifer. SG Danby and Sons took home the prize for Champion Homebred Carcase, for their submission of an Organic steer, which was also awarded Reserve Champion Continental Carcase.

 The crowd then gathered at the Bentley Hotel for dinner and the presentation of the prizes, where each of the judges addressed the crowd, highlighting the strong standards at play in this year’s contest, and emphasising that even those that had not taken home a prize should be commended for their efforts in producing cattle which fit within the Waitrose specifications.

We were extremely pleased to host such a successful event after a two year absence, and our deepest gratitude is extended to the producers who continue to attend and support this event, the judges for their time and knowledge and, especially, to our Livestock team for all their hard work behind the scenes in putting the event together. We would also like to extend a special thanks to the lairage and abattoir staff at our Skellingthorpe site, for whom dressing and displaying the submissions means a great deal of attentive work above and beyond their regular duties. Dovecote Park would like to congratulate all the prizewinners, and look forward to hosting the carcase contest once again in 2020!