Supporting the best way you can…

If you have been a long standing supporter of Tiny Lives we are sure you will remember a few years ago we posted on our facebook page about one very different donation made to Tiny Lives which will leave an everlasting name of Tiny Lives in the farming world.

When Max and Elisabeth Welters twin girls Minnie and Tillie were born prematurely in October 2011, they experienced first hand the wonderful care not only their little girls received on the unit but also the care they received as a family.  Max and Elisabeth wanted to give something back and also help to support other babies and families on the unit.  That’s when they came up with the idea to call their heifer (the last calf born on the farm before Minnie and Tillie arrived) Maximus Tiny Lives. The Tiny Lives name will follow on in the Maximus family tree for years to come on the Pedigree certificates. ‘Tiny Lives’ became a minor celebrity for a while featuring on local news and radio, she was prepared for show in October 2013 and raised just under £4k.

‘Tiny Lives’ went off to a new life in Morayshire and Max and Elisabeth kept in touch with the family who purchased her. The Laings had further success with her at the Royal Highland Show a year later and in 2016 ‘Tiny Lives’ bull calf Coulmony Maximus won Reserve Champion at his first show as a calf which is hard to do.  It seemed the right time for the Welters to buy Coulmony Maximus and bring him back to the family farm as their new stock bull.

In early 2017 Coulmony Maximus went to a collection centre in order to make semen straws up for ai. It was done to the highest specification so that they could export his semen worldwide and the family are pleased to report that they made their first sale.  They sold 200 straws to a breeder in America. They told the breeder their story about the girls on the special care baby unit, about Tiny Lives and of course all about Maximus’s mum Maximus Tiny Lives. The family will donate an amount from the sale of each straw raising money for the charity but as Coulmony Maximus sires more offspring he will also continue to raise awareness of the charity as his mum’s name Maximus ‘Tiny Lives’ will appear on each Pedigree certificate issued for registered progeny.

After a busy start to the year, Coulmony Maximus has spent the summer grazing with his new lady friends at the farm in Cumbria. He will then go off to the same prep and pamper farm that his mum Maximus ‘Tiny Lives’ went to before her successful show in 2013. He will spend the winter preparing to be shown in 2018 and the Welters family are keen to take him to the Royal Highland Show which is the pinnacle of the show circuit.

Minnie and Tillie are doing great now and are currently enjoying home education on the family farm in North Cumbria.