Seventeen-year-old Calum Smith from D&S Smith & Son of Turnberry met HRH Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Highland Show on Friday.
He accepted the specially created Queen's Award Rosette for native breeds for this year's champion Hereford, Baldinnie 1 Cranmore.
The Queen's father King George VI bestowed the title "Royal" on the show at the Inverness event in 1948, and the Queen
's last visit to the event was 25 years ago.
Calum said: "It was good to meet the Queen. She asked me where I was from and the age of the bull."
This is the second year running that the three-year-old, affectionately named Crannie, has won the breed championship at Ingliston. Earlier this year he won at Ayr and was overall supreme champion at Stirling. He was bred by John A Cameron & Son of Fife – by Leo's Pride 1 Vanquish, out of Baldinnie 1 Cathy 4th. The Smiths bought him last year and he will now be retired to stud.
Over 200 years the Hereford has grown to become the world's most numerous breed, with an estimated population exceeding 100 million. The Turnberry bull is extremely well balanced and has great power and presence, so it is no wonder that he was chosen by judge Ian Shaw from South Wirral as this year's breed champion.
