The Swordale herd of Bonnar Bridge, Sutherland-based David and Sandy Watt has this week announced the private purchase of two new junior herd sires, Blelack Topper R553 (pictured above) from the Massie family, Aberdeenshire and Deveron Kennedy R497 from Hamish and Margaret Sclater, Aberdeenshire.

“Topper is a phenomenal young bull with power and style in abundance,” reckons Sandy Watt. “He has exceptional shape, muscle pattern and length with a great top line to match. He tracks very well and has an outstanding pedigree along with huge EBV’s being in the top 1% of the breed for both terminal sire and self-replacing index, as well as milk.”

He is sired by Hallington Principal M367 who has been breeding exceptionally well at Blelack leaving long powerful stylish calves with great shape. Principal’s sire is the renowned Nightingale Proud Jake G405, who has left his mark on many Angus Herds and combines many of the influential bulls used at Nightingale in recent years.

Topper’s dam, Blelack Toplass M899, is by Blelack Duke J262 and is a big powerful cow with plenty of capacity while remaining feminine and correct, a real feature of this family line. Duke’s Dam is the full sister to ONeills Explosion who sold for $150,000.00.

The Toplasses are a relatively new family introduced to Blelack from an embryo brought back from the States (TC Freedom 104 x DMM Top Lass 3G). These cattle have gone on to be one of best performing and most consistent families at Blelack, and Topper is the first bull to be sold from this outstanding line since their introduction.

Some of these Toplass females will be at the Blelack reduction sale on Monday at United Auction in Stirling. This would include Topper dam, Toplass M899 and her full sister Toplass P322 and his grand dam Toplass J159.

Meanwhile, Deveron Kennedy is a stylish well fleshed bull, with great length, depth, and width, explains Sandy. “He is packed with breed character and has an excellent pedigree along with top EBV’s. He is an easy calving bull with great figures for growth and milk, while being in the top 10% of the breed for terminal sire index and top 5% for self-replacing index.

Kennedy is sired by Deveron Master Banbury L376, himself a a son of Netherton Trendy Man A085, a half-brother to Netherton Royal Sovereign A072. These two Netherton bulls were both sired by the legendary TC Stockman 365, one of the world’s most famous Angus sires leaving many top performing show champions. His dam is double bred to Blackhaugh Easy Papa G733 who himself was a great easy calving bull, leaving some phenomenal breeding cattle with great conversion rates. Also on the dam’s side he has two past Black Beauty Bonanza champions in the form of Deveron Edinburgh K324 and Deveron Kleo G189.