Farming Eye

English Hereford genetics will soon be making their mark in France thanks to the export of Bosa 1 Hurst from the Blandford family’s Bosa herd, Ledbury.

Hurst, a son of the reserve sire of the year, Velleyhill 1 Ho Boy, has been bought by  Guillaume Deslandes, Meneac, France for £4000, and has a TSI of +37 and an SRI of +44, placing him well inside the top 1% of the breed for both traits.

The Hereford Cattle Society reports strong interest in France for the Hereford breed during the past 12 months, including in the meat sector, with major retailer Metro re-launching its Hereford Vintage Beef range.

by Jonathan Long

Limousin bull Mereside Grant from the Hazard family’s Grantham, Lincolnshire-based Mereside herd has sold to a consortium of leading French Limousin breeders.

In what is just the second bull bred in the UK to be sold back to France, Mereside Grant combines pedigree and performance, carrying household names such as Objat, Dauphin and Genial in his pedigree and having a beef value of +33, placing him within the top 10% of UK Limousins.

Mereside Grant has sold to a consortium of seven French Limousin breeders

Grant is sired by Dormeur, a bull imported from France as a weaned calf and used extensively on heifers in the Mereside herd. Dormeur was selected for his easy calving traits, combined with excellent breed character and muscle development. All traits he has passed on to his offspring.

His dam is the homebred cow Mereside Annette, a daughter of Obus, the 2002 Paris Show muscle champion. She is out of French cow Ginette, a dam which is leaving a lasting impression on the Mereside herd, with a number of retained females in the herd.

February 2011-born Mereside Grant was sold following a visit to the Mereside herd by a group of French breeders and has been bought by seven well known French herds, namely; Gaec de Cancerles, Earl Moury, Richard Bournazel, Gaec Delmond, Nicolas Jammet, Gaec Les Chauvets and Regis Recoulin.

He is now destined for export to France in the coming weeks and on arrival he will head straight to an AI stud for semen collection. Future plans include showing him at the 2012 French National Limousin Show.

A spokesman for the French consortium said they had been impressed by a number of female lines in the Mereside herd and felt Mereside Grant was an ideal bull to produce the type of cattle demanded by the French market.

“We believe Mereside Grant is the perfect bull to produce the thick beefy type of cattle required in France. He has good muscle through his top and his ends and isn’t excessive in his bone either. He shows strong breed character in his head and importantly he is from a good female line. His mother is a good cow which is suckling another very good bull calf this year.”

Speaking on behalf of the Hazard family Roger Hazard said he was delighted to have sold Mereside Grant to the French consortium. “We’ve always paid close attention to the breed’s development in France and have, at various times, imported a number of leading bloodlines from France to compliment our herd. The sale of Mereside Grant to this consortium is an exciting development for the herd and we look forward to seeing how his progeny perform in France in the coming years.”

by Jonathan Long

Building on what has been a tremendous couple of months for the Aberdeen-Angus breed in terms of exports of UK-bred cattle, the Netherton herd of the McLaren family, Perthshire, have announced the private export sale of eight heifers and a bull to the Carrera family from Catalonia, Spain.

The Carrera family farm on the south face of Pyrenees Mountains where they are establishing a new farm, with the help of the European Welfare Quality TM Project. They have developed the family business through Carrera d’en Bas SL and now run 200 cows and seven bulls. Sourcing of further calves from across the Pyrenees region enables the family to finish 500 cattle a year.

The reason behind the addition of the Aberdeen-Angus cattle is to produce meat with more marbling for sale through their butchery in the Cooperative of Vall d’en Bas, as this is now more of a requirement from their customer base. The plan now is to start their own pure bred herd and use the new stock sire Netherton Mr Administrator K575 over the rest of the commercial herd.

Netherton Mr Administrator is part of the shipment of Aberdeen-Angus cattle to Spain

Mr Administrator K575 is a son of the top Australian sire Ardrossan Admiral and is out of one of the top TLA Northern Samuria daughters which is now a foundation cow in the Rull Herd. Mr Administrator was selected for his high marbling figures being in the top 5% of the breed, as well as his easy calving, good growth rates and Terminal Sire Index which place him in the top 15% of the breed. He is also a full brother to the February Stirling sale bull Netherton Mr Admiral, which sold for £10,500 to Threeburnford Angus.

by Jonathan Long

The largest ever shipment of UK sheep semen to leave the country has this week arrived in Brazil, with British Texel semen making up the bulk of the order of 4300 straws.

The consignment arrived in Brazil just in time for the March breeding season and coincides with the largest indoor sheep event in South America, Feinco 2012. This latest multi breed export comprising of mainly British Texel semen will go some way to helping satisfy the growing demand for British genetics, explained British Texel Sheep Society chief executive John Yates.

Semen from Cambell Rankin has been exported to semen along with other top Texel sires

“There is great potential for further exports of genetics from a variety of breeds that will help to fast track the Brazilian sheep industry’s production efficiency. But it is Brazilian Texel breeders who are taking up the opportunity to a greater level.

by Chrissie Long

Brazilian cattle breeder Jean Pierre Machado has been busy importing British native breeds semen to compliment his current genetics, sourcing Lincoln Red and Belted Galloway semen and Lincoln Red, Beef Shorthorn, Aberdeen-Angus and Belted Galloway embryos.

The semen, 100 straws of Lincoln Red bull St Fort Essex, and 50 straws each of Belted Galloway bulls Mochrum Huckleberry, Park Perseus and Bo, is arriving in Brazil this week, having been shipped by UK Sire Services. It follows an importation three years of semen from another Lincoln Red sire Harrington Charlie by Mr Machado who says having recently restructured the Brazilian Lincoln Red Society members are keen to source new bloodlines for pure and cross-breeding.

“But this will be the first Belted Galloway semen imported to Brazil in more than 40 years and the first new Belted Galloway genetics imported since 1984 when the last animals were imported from the UK. These importations of new Belted Galloway genetics will help establish a pure registered herd on my farm.”

Meanwhile, the embryos, which are being shipped in the next two to three weeks by Bovine Genetics, Warwickshire, have been sourced from breeders across the UK. The Lincoln Red embryos are coming from the St Fort herd, Fife, with Beef Shorthorn embryos coming from James Playfair-Hannay’s Tofts herd, Kelso, and T C Blake’s Stonmour herd, Clevedon. The Aberdeen-Angus embryos are also being consigned by Mr Playfair Hannay.

by Jonathan Long

There is good news for the Aberdeen-Angus breed ahead of next week’s Stirling sale, with a batch of heifers heading to Estonia in the latest export deal for the breed.

The latest consignment, which totals 46 head includes 35 heifers which have been bought by one of the world’s leading professional sumo wrestlers is the latest recruit to the ranks of Aberdeen-Angus breeders.

Estonian, Kaido Hoovelson – who wrestles under the name of Baruto and is currently the number two sumo wrestler in the world – has purchased 35 yearling heifers as the foundation stock for an Aberdeen-Angus herd on his farm in Estonia.

The heifers have been purchased from the Rosemount herd of Alex and Wendy Sanger at Prettycur, Montrose, Angus, and are due to be shipped to Estonia later this month.

Alongside this group are a batch of 10 heifers and a bull which are heading to established Estonian Aberdeen-Angus breeders Meelis and Piret Marmor of Aberdeen Top Genetics, whose 90-cow Marmorland herd, built up over the past six years on Scottish bloodlines, is now firmly established as the leading Aberdeen-Angus herd in Estonia.

“Kaido is a farm boy at heart and has opted for Aberdeen-Angus after considering several other breeds,” said Mr Marmor, who is advising Mr Hoovelson on his new venture. “The Aberdeen-Angus breed is the most popular breed in Estonia with strong local demand as well as a thriving export trade to countries such as Romania, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Latvia.”

Mr Marmor has sold 15 bulls for breeding over the past year and another to Mr Hoovelson for his new herd. There is also a strong demand from Turkey for weaned Aberdeen-Angus bull calves for finishing as bull beef.

by Jonathan Long

Mexican Charolais breeders will be using a new British bull this year thanks to the export of semen by Scottish Charolais breeder, Murray Lyle.

The semen, which has been shipped through UK Sire Services, is from Lamerpark Champion, a Weybread Archie son with a TSI of +33 and an SRI of +32. Bred by D G White, Wheathamstead, Champion, has lived up to his name, collecting an admiral sideboard full of silverware, including being overall Scottish National Charolais Show champion and Royal Highland Show junior interbreed champion.

The shipment was negotiated after a delegation from the Mexican Charolais Society attended the Stirling bull sales last autumn before visiting various Charolais herds from across the United Kingdom.

Mr Lyle comments: “We are really pleased to secure this deal. The delegation selected Champion for his frame and the growth that his genetics will offer to Mexican pedigree and commercial producers to enhance their already high performance Charolais. They were also very impressed with his muscling and easy fleshing qualities.”

The Mexican Charolais Society first imported British Charolais genetics in 2006, looking for length, ease of calving, milk, good locomotion and tight sheaths to build on their bloodlines which suit extensive farming systems. He continues: “The addition of Champion will build on the improvements that British Charolais has already contributed to the Mexican beef sector as the dominant terminal sire breed.”

by Jonathan Long