The Sinclair family of Unigarth Farm, Sandwick, Orkney. Pictured with children Alana and Scott are, from left, Steven Sinclair and his wife Leona and parents Barbara and Rognvald.

The Scotch Beef PGI served at the charity dinner, for which guests paid £600 per ticket, was sourced by Bridge of Allan-based Scotbeef from the Sinclair family at Unigarth in Sandwick.

The Diner des Grands Chefs, which was this year held in London following stints in Versailles and New York, saw 46 “Grands Chefs”  of 13 different nationalities represented including: France, the United States, Japan, South Africa, Singapore and Taiwan.

The acclaimed chefs joined forces to create an exceptional culinary “wow” with “pop-up kitchen” cooking stations allowing them to cook live in front of guests. Each chef prepared a dish with a key ingredient sourced in the UK, of which Scotch Beef PGI was one.

The family have farmed at Unigarth for five generations and Rognvald, Barbara and their son Steven and wife Leona have gradually built the size of their Aberdeen-Angus herd to 200 breeding cows.

“The fact that Scotch Beef was served at such a prestigious event is testament to the high esteem our beef, with its quality assurance and traceability, is held in at the high end of the global culinary scene,” said Margaret Stewart, Marketing Manager with Quality Meat Scotland.

“The Sinclair family are committed to producing a first class quality assured product and they were delighted to have been chosen to supply the beef for this prestigious event attended by so many key influential top chefs,” she added.

Caption: The Sinclair family of Unigarth Farm, Sandwick, Orkney. Pictured with children Alana and Scott are, from left, Steven Sinclair and his wife Leona and parents Barbara and Rognvald.

The cheque was presented by past chairman, Wendy Willox, accompanied by new chairman, Alex Davie, to two Prince’s Trust ambassadors, who have both benefited from the trust, Maxine Dunn and Alan MacDonald. The money was raised at a charity auction at a gala dinner during the Club’s Ruby Anniversary tour last October which followed a visit to Ballindalloch Castle attened by the Prince of Wales, who is Patron of the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society.

Like the Parasite Forecast bulletin each webinar promotes disease control and prevention through veterinary health planning and emphasises  the vet’s central role in improving animal health on farm. NADIS will update the webinars each month.

Hugh Judd showing younger club members how to cook an Angus Flat Iron Steak

More than 30 club members first watched Martin cut the six new cuts from some primals, then Hugh cooked the cuts in a variety of mouth watering ways. This was followed with everyone having a go at cooking and eating a Flat Iron steak for lunch, one or two club members clearly don’t do a lot of cooking but Hugh was on hand to save the wonderful beef!

We were then treated to some wonderful desserts made by Angela and the Nightingale team, before Hugh presented the prizes for the Club’s Herd Competition. The day finished with a chance to inspect the world famous Nightingale herd which was out to grass and looked as good as ever.

The Club would like to thank Hugh Judd and Martin Eccles of EBLEX and everyone at Nightingale for a wonderful day.

Over the past 40 years, Eddie has largely steered the club, with many events being successfully organised. Most recently, ‘The Ruby Tour’, but ‘The Thousand Cow Tour’ 10 years ago and ‘The Heritage Tour’ 15 years ago.

With his enormous network of friends and contacts, Eddie has been hugely instrumental in the success of NEAABC. Always keen to help and encourage new breeders, he has been key to everything the club has done. Eddie maintains his connection with NEAABC as an Honorary President and his role as secretary has been taken over by Angus Smith- Arms.

To celebrate his 40-year commitment with NEAABC, the club are holding a ‘Garden Party’ at Deeside Activity Park on Sunday 2^nd June from 3.30pm. Everyone is welcome and information and tickets can be found by emailing info@deesideactivitypark.com or by telephone 01339883536 or any of the club office holders.

Chairman – Alex Davie- Perkhill; 07778964438

Secretary – Angus Smith- Arms; 01466711494

Treasurer – Margaret Howie- Cairnton; 01339883536

The club looks forward to celebrating Eddie’s 40 years with you all!

So to help you decide if your bull’s performance matches that of his fellows, the Society has produced a ‘Weight for Age’ sheet which although is only a guide for you, it may help you if you have any doubts regarding a suitable weight range for your bulls for sale.

To download the weight for age sheet, click here.

The facility currently undertakes methane measurements with ‘high’ throughput linked to ‘in situ’ measures of feed intake/growth and ‘in situ’ methane sampling and carries out individual performance monitoring facilities for hundreds of cattle - for investigating genetic, nutritional and other factors influencing feed efficiency and methane output and for testing ‘proxy’ measures of GHG outputs.

This will no doubt be an informative visit and a full report on the findings will follow after the meeting. If you’d like to know more about the centre and the project then click on this link.

To date all the Myostatin results, whether collected through official sales or as a result of members sending in samples for testing, have been logged on the Society’s Registration Database, but are not accessible via the web or on printed on pedigrees.  They are effectively confidential.  This puts the Society in a difficult position in that the Society is holding information that may impact a member’s breeding policy if they are minded to exclude or minimise the impact of Myostatin on their herd. This situation can be rectified by publishing all the Myostatin results which we hold although we appreciate that they remain confidential until the owner’s permission to publicise them is granted in an attempt to put accurate and important information at members’ disposal from which they can make informed breeding decisions.

If you wish any of your bull’s Myostatin results to remain confidential then please inform the office on ++44(0)1738622477 by 28^th February 2013,  otherwise it is the Society’s intention to make the Myostatin status of all bulls which have been tested available on the web from early 1^st March 2013”.

More than 266,000 Aberdeen-Angus sired calves were registered with the British Cattle Movement Service in 2012, an increase of more than 3% on the year before, reaffirming the breed’s position as the most popular native beef breed sire in the UK and the second most popular beef breed sire.

Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society chief executive Ron McHattie says that when this increase is set against a declining national herd it is a remarkable achievement for the breed and reflects the commercial demand for Aberdeen-Angus sired cattle from processors and consumers alike.

“It is testament to the breed’s ability to attain premium prices in both the prime ring and the store ring and is just reward for the hard work done by UK Aberdeen-Angus breeders to produce bulls suited to the demands of the modern beef industry.”

This news follows hot on the heels of a successful spring show and sale at Stirling on Tuesday (6 February), which saw the breed set a new record average of £5182 for 103 bulls sold.

“Advancements in the use of estimated breeding values, coupled with the renowned easy calving and easier care attributes of the Aberdeen-Angus breed have led to large numbers of commercial suckler farmers switching to the breed in recent years,” adds Mr McHattie.

Tellingly, at a time when suckler cow numbers are falling the Aberdeen-Angus is one of only two mainstream beef breeds to see a rise in BCMS calf registrations, with the only other breed to see a rise also a native breed with a premium marketing scheme in place.

The latest rise is in addition to a 6% increase seen in Aberdeen-Angus sired calf registrations in 2011, says Mr McHattie. “The Aberdeen-Angus breed has firmly cemented itself as the second most popular beef breed sire in the UK and this looks set to continue further as increasing numbers of retailers look to capitalise on the exceptionally high quality of beef in the coming years.”

Commercial farmers are being drawn to the Aberdeen-Angus breed both as a result of premium prices, but also its ability to finish on forage-based diets and to thrive in all parts of the UK, explained Mr McHattie. “As beef farmers further scrutinise costs they are seeking out cattle which require less concentrate feeding and which can maximise productivity from lower inputs. The Aberdeen-Angus fits the bill perfectly, both as a terminal sire and as a suckler cow.”

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Major beef breed registrations in 2011 and 2012