All at the Society would like to extend their deepest condolences after the sad passing of member Duff Burrell. Duff was a highly regarded member and breeder of the Aberdeen-Angus fraternity and over the years has contributed a great deal to the well running and governance of the Society. He opened the doors of Broome Park to the visitors to the World Angus Forum in 2017 as part of the Borders/NE England farm tours.
The Burrell family have extended an invitation to all who would wish to attend the funeral as per the information they have provided below:
From the Burrell family:
”We wanted to inform you that my father’s funeral will be held at St Michael’s Church, Alnwick, NE66 1NP Monday 10th December.
Service to start 11:30am.
We will continue on to Broome Park (NE66 2EQ) for the burial. All are welcome to join us back at Broome Park.
Please feel welcome to spread the word to any who you may think interested.
No need to respond to this email.
Best wishes,
Toby, George & Anneli”
Broome Park at Alnwick, is home of Duff Burrell’s 180-cow, high health herd, where the herd runs on 500ha whereby offspring are finished off grass at 500 days of age. Duff was a keen importer of Genetics sourcing the majority of his stock bulls through Embryo transfer. A keen advocate of Breedplan and using that as a tool to identify high efficient performing animals that are the driving force of his breeding programme. Duff’s eye was never taken away from carcase quality and on many occasions posed questions about the beef industry being paid on weight and not quality, and challenged the EUROP grading system at every opportunity.
The herd was established in 1998 with females from the Fairoaks and Wedderlie herds, with the aim being to produce beef profitably. Duff openly admitted to being a beef farmer rather than a pedigree breeder at heart so at all times a commercial focus was maintained. Pedigree sales were a welcome bonus, but a large cross section of bulls were sold commercially.
The vision at Broome Park was clear, plans to continue to improve the herd through carefully selected genetics, while driving down cost and producing better carcasses.