Tuesday 20th April 2021

CATALOGUE

United Auctions, Stirling May Sale:

United Auctions, Stirling Agriculture Centre, Stirling, FK9 4RN

Sunday 2nd – Monday 3rd May 2021

CATALOGUE

Contact United Auctions for more information – 01786 473055

H&H, Carlisle May Sale:

Borderway Mart Rosehill, Carlisle, CA1 2RS

Saturday 22nd May 2021

Catalogue available soon

Sale Animal Photos:

If anyone has any photos of animals they have going forward to upcoming Society sales, please send them to Amy for advertising on our website and Facebook page – amy@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Aberdeen-Angus: the breed, the brand, the members…

Fantastic Aberdeen-Angus coverage in the Spring NBA magazine, which includes a case study on the Aberdeen-Angus breed with Society member and council member Chris Wilkinson.

Make sure to get yourself a copy to have a read!

Great British Beef Week 2021 #GBBW

Keep an eye out on our 3 social media platforms from Friday 23^rd – Friday 30^th April as we will be supporting the nations favourite foodie weeks – Great British Beef Week ??

This year GBBW is focusing on recognising and highlighting British beef farmers and the work they do to support sustainable production practices on their farms. It’s due to the strides that these farmers make in this area that British beef continues to be amongst the most sustainable in the world.

ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE SOCIETY – 2021 BREED AWARDS:

We have sent out an email to all summer show secretary’s (please check junk boxes). See copy of email below…

Dear Show Secretary,

I hope you are well!

Due to COVID-19 with some shows already being cancelled we have decided this year to not supply the shows with a CHAMPION SASH as we are not always aware of which shows are going ahead and which ones are not going ahead this year.

For this year if your show is going ahead can you please use the CHAMPION rosette that we supplied last year, if you no longer have the CHAMPION rosette from last year please let me know and we can get one sent to you.

Please also remember to update your show schedules about the Society only supplying a CHAMPION rosette.

If your show is not going ahead this year, can you please drop me an email to let me know so I can update our show spreadsheet. Email – amy@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

For 2022 we will be back to normal with the usual Aberdeen-Angus breed awards of a CHAMPION sash and CHAMPION rosette.

We hope you understand, and we look forward to a busy summer show season in 2022!

YDP Instagram Takeover: 

We are looking for each of our YDP participants to take over the YDP Instagram page @aberdeenangusydp.

If you have an interesting week planned on the farm, or an exciting trip planned, or just your varied life on the farm then please contact us to book your week.

Our members are looking forward to varied, fun and fresh, posts, videos and photos from you.
Email: ydp@aberdeen-angus.co.uk to book your week.

Stock for Sale & Stock Wanted:

If you would like to advertise stock for sale & stock wanted on our website then please send all the relevant information, contact information along with pictures/videos to Amy: amy@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Potential buyers can contact members directly.

(Stock for sale is for Aberdeen-Angus members to advertise only. We only publish adverts for pedigree Aberdeen-Angus stock).

Staff Update:

The staff are all still working from home and continue as a team to deliver to the best of their ability to the membership. Due to the volume of emails that are being received at present please bear with us and we will reply as soon as we possibly can.

In order to work more efficiently in relation to the large volume of emails that are received, please be aware that the info@aberdeen-angus.co.uk email address is being wound down and is no longer monitored regularly. Should you email this address you will receive a standard reply to this effect asking you to email the correct person from the contact us page on the website, so that your enquiry can be dealt with as quickly as possible by the person responsible for the particular task. To make this process more streamlined, we are currently working to update the contact us page with a brief description of the main duties that each member of staff deal with to help you select the most appropriate person to contact.

By contacting the correct person by email in the first instance we hope that you will receive a quicker response to your enquiry and urge you to do this going forward so please embrace this change and let’s make it work and the whole business work smarter going forward.
To be able to contact the staff, please see email addresses below. By emailing us this is our most favoured method of communication

Barrie Turner, CEO (01738 448345) – barrie@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Laura Stewart, Office Manager (01738 448343) – laura@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Angela Cumming, Accounts (01738 448344) – angela@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Caroline Ford, Registrations, Sales (01738 448341) – caroline@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Fiona Flood, Registrations, New member enquiries (01738 448342) – fiona@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Amy Johnstone, Shows & Sales, Stock For Sale, Stock Wanted, Website & Social Media (01738 448348) –amy@aberdeen-angus.co.uk

Barbara Webster, Pedigree Cattle Services (01738 448346) – barbara@breedplan.co.uk

Helena Stewart, Aberdeen-Angus Accounts & Pedigree Cattle Services (01738 448347) – helena@breedplan.co.uk

• Hope that you are all keeping well and the period of enforced self-isolation being observed by many during lambing and calving.
• Covid-19 is still affecting how we do things and discharge our responsibilities to the membership.
• As it stands now there may not be a great deal of change to that situation until the end of June, although there has been some good news in Scotland in that some of the roadmap dates have been brought forward.
• Our registrations team is under pressure as always at this time of year but even more so perhaps this year through the busy time being a person and a half short of what is needed.
• I am taking advice now on the possibility of starting some lateral flow test kits for Covid-19 as the staff situation particularly in registrations is such that we need to bring in somebody new and train them up.
• I have the news today that kits will be available in Scotland to everyone at the end of April so that may well take care of itself!
• Thanks to Fiona and Caroline for agreeing to work with this if the risk to our investment in keeping the staff and their families safe is not compromised.
• We have started our quest to resolve this and to recruit a Breed Development Manager a round of interviews which we are holding on Tuesday 20^th April. My thanks to the panel for making themselves available.
• Thanks also to Jenny McCullagh our HR advisor for keeping us on the right tracks with the process ensuring compliance and transparency with the recruitment process on all fronts.
• The shows are seemingly coming out of the woodwork with various formats for some of those who can run that have not yet cancelled – Highland “Virtual” format, Great Yorkshire four-day event with limited crowds etc.
• It is a bit of a conundrum as to what we do and can do at these events to promote the dreed which is what it is all about. We are working with the clubs locally to the shows to see which ways to go for the best.
• I have only had one call from an exhibitor who would be showing everywhere they could but not a mad rush of people, as so many will have turned their show cattle out unprepared this year.
• The newly appointed General Manger in Ireland is getting settled into her role and support is still being afforded to her over her first few weeks in the role. But what a start! Felicity has hit the ground running gathered up everything in her path and moved it forward.
• Assistance required with a number of items including the calling of an AGM to formally accept the terms of the Articles of Association by the membership prior to them being lodged with CRO in Ireland.
• To all the EU members that are waiting for further information on how to register cattle we have had meetings with ICBF and are in the final stages on setting up how that will work. A very streamlined and simple system that is perhaps easier to follow that the UK one.
• Lucy Andrews – Noden of Priestcliffe Consulting continues her research work for us into the best path to take the membership on the Genomic journey and hopefully will be able to report back to the DNA/Breed Development Committees with her recommendations soon.
• The now installed President, David Ismail is taking the reins and responsibilities of his new position, sorting out refined structures and working practices for Committees and Council members.
• Zoom will be playing a big part in what we do going forward with regular Committee meetings to be scheduled, a busy year ahead for Council members and staff to pull together and deliver the plan.
• A bit more normality will return hopefully to the May sales – Carlisle will certainly be perhaps more so than Stirling, which we anticipate will be the same format as February, as the roadmap is faster in England out of restrictions, as always, we will be advised by the auctioneers what we can and can’t do.
• We would appreciate a speedy response to any requests for information or samples, for sale entries from the office as we prepare all the information assimilation required for animals at society sales.
• Just on the sales and what people pay for bulls, I have had two instances in the last two weeks where bulls have not been able to be traced on the database by abattoirs, one was sold to the commercial man with a certificate or a different animal and the other one was bought as an Aberdeen-Angus which it is but is not registered.
• In both situations, the buyers of these bulls have lost out substantially on the AA premium by trying to save a few pounds by not buying through proper channels and being drawn in by price.
• This has been a very expensive mistake for both one with 95 cattle in his system and the other one with 35, the premium lost would have covered the cost at least threefold, buyers beware of cheap Aberdeen-Angus Bulls!!!
• A reminder that health cards are required for EVERY animal including females entered and an observance of the Society weight for age calculations with the normal tolerance allowance for transport loss will be in force.
• The last three sales animals which were underweight but within tolerance at the time of sale were unsold.
• Following a “Doodle Poll” for the two areas unrepresented with candidates for Council, we are pleased to welcome, Mathew Currie for Scotland South and Kit Acton for England and Wales North who are co-opted for a period of one year.
• Amy Johnstone heads into her final week at the Society next week and we wish her well with her future endeavours with Harbro, recruitment process for her and Yvonne’s replacement is underway.
• Something that we rarely think about, renewal of domain names, these have all been up for subscription renewals and the dangers of not doing it are quite substantial as Russell Taylor at Moncur will stand testament to!
• Its renewal time for our CAAB members annual subscription, thanks to Angela Cumming for sorting this out this year and thanks to the subscribing members for their continued support.
• Angus Stovold and I were invited to a CHeCS board meeting this week which we believe had a highly successful outcome on a proposal submitted to encourage more engagement with IBR and it’s control.
• Been engaging more closely with Pinstone along with the new Chair of Marketing as it is now become known, Chris Wilkinson good to have an extra pair of eyes and another brain on the job, thanks for your support Chris as always.
• Trading conditions with Northern Ireland and therefore the EU are very much to the fore with the NBA and Levy boards battling on behalf of breeders on retagging, reintroduction of the show licence system, now going to Government next Tuesday for debate.
• Both the World Angus Secretariat and the European Angus Secretariat have become active this last period with a Virtual meeting of the WAS is planned for 1^st/2^nd of July depending on what time zone you are in, UK is 8.00pm on the 1st of July.
• There has been a couple of Glitches with Pedigree house an overflow pipe has been running and a toilet has become blocked putting this down to it needs to be used more!
• I have recovered sufficiently from my hip replacement operation and will be returning to the office – Covid-19 tested on the 23^{rd of} April making life for me a great deal simpler having everything around me!
• Many thanks again to all of you who have called to enquire after my health it is much appreciated.
• This is some but by no means all of the business that comes across my desk on a weekly basis but hopefully gives you a flavour of what is going on.
• Until the next report I wish you all a problem free period of lambing and calving and hope that you and your families all remain in good health as we head back to something like normality.

News & Notices from the Accounts Department: