Another excellent week has passed and we’ve arrived at the final weekend of the 2017 World Angus Forum here in the home of the Aberdeen-Angus breed. This past week has been full of exciting and brilliant events for everyone involved with the Aberdeen-Angus breed, from the well attended sale at Dunlouise to the array of great occasions as part of the World Angus Forum and much more.
World Angus Forum:
On Saturday, many of our delegates were delighted to visit Mosshall Farm to see Nikki and George Taylor’s Red Angus herd, where there was a brilliant show of cattle on display with the Red Angus being a great treat for the international delegates and everyone else who attended. The hospitality was equally brilliant and we’d like to thank Nikki and George for welcoming everyone on to the farm and putting on such a great day. If you missed it the first time, you can learn more about our day at Mosshall via the video at: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/the-world-angus-forum-2017-day-10/.
Image: visitors taking in the red Angus herd at Mosshall.
The hotly anticipated Technical Conference ‘From consumption to conception’ took place at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on the 25th and 26th June and was brilliantly attended, with some great insight and learnings taken from the various speakers covering all the hot topics in the world of beef production. A huge thank you is extended to all the speakers that attended the conference and helped make it such a success. We’d also like to thank everyone at Allflex, the primary sponsor for the technical conference who’s support was greatly appreciated. You can hear from some of the speakers and learn more about what happened at the conference via the videos on our website:
Conference day 1: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/world-angus-forum-2017-day-11/
Conference day 2: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/the-world-angus-forum-2017-day-12/
The Gala Dinner also took place on Monday night at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The night was a fantastic celebration for all involved, with food and entertainment delivered to the highest standard! We must thank Scotbeef again for supplying the superb Aberdeen-Angus beef for the delicious main course we were treated to, along with Clanadonia for giving a true taste of Scotland to our international delegates with some magnificent entertainment. We’d also like to extend our congratulations to Hayley Bruce who was announced as the winner of the cookery competition, who will win a brilliant experience working with Tristin Farmer in one of his restaurants in either Sydney or Hong Kong! A special mention must also go out to Willie McLaren Snr for delivering a brilliant rendition of the World Angus Forum song ‘An Angus For Me’, which was great to hear as always. We also got the chance to see some fantastic dance moves from Society president Alex Sanger as you can see below!
We have also completed a brilliant Irish leg of the World Angus Forum, taking in the All-Ireland Championships at Newry and a couple of superb herd visits at Liss and Gigginstown. We’d like to thank all involved in the Irish Aberdeen-Angus Association for helping organise a great tour, along with John McEnroe and family of the Liss herd and Michael O’Leary and family of the Gigginstown herd for being great hosts and welcoming everyone on farm to display great shows of cattle, along with the magnificent thoroughbred racing stud at Gigginstown. In case you missed, it, you can read more about the Liss and Gigginstown herd visits in the below links:
Liss: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/world-angus-forum-herd-visit-liss-herd/
Gigginstown: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/world-angus-forum-herd-visit-gigginstown-herd/
We’re well underway with the Scottish leg of the World Angus Forum now and have taken in some great events already, including visits, albeit rainy visits, to the Wedderlie, Haymount, Rawburn, Galcantray and Ballindalloch herds where we saw great shows of cattle at each.
On Tuesday we saw brilliant shows of cattle at Wedderlie, Rawburn and Haymount, before heading to the Borders Union Showground to sample all the very best the Borders has to offer, along with the agri-skills competition as part of the youth competition.
On Wednesday, we decanted north from Edinburgh with five buses on our way to Dingwall Mart for the Highland Club exhibition – Northern Exposure. There was yet another magnificent show of cattle on display, along with much more including kilt and stick making stands and a great story-telling of the famous tale of the Highland drovers. In the evening we ventured to the University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness where we received a talk from the Lady Provost and some great insight into health issues from George Gunn of SRUC.
Thursday started off with a visit to the impressive Galcantray herd which included some of the very best Scottish hospitality and the added bonus of a heavy horse display with complimentary cart rides. After Galcantray, we headed to Ballindalloch where Guy Macpherson-Grant is now in charge and were treated to a tour of the whole castle and the grounds, and another great show of Aberdeen-Angus cattle on the policy field in front of the Castle. There was even a game of ‘guess the bull’s weight’ involved which was enjoyed by all! Many thanks to all involved.
Today we had a wonderful gathering at Tillyfour featuring a magnificent re-enactment of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s visit to Tillyfour to be shown the cattle all those years ago. It was great to see so many herds from the North East Aberdeen-Angus Club gathered together for the event, with herds from as far as Orkney present. A big thank you is extended to all involved! This afternoon we were also treated to a visit to the Glenbervie herd of Aberdeen-Angus which went down a treat with all who attended.
We’re very much looking forward to this weekend, with the unveiling of the Hugh Watson memorial at Glamis Castle and visits to the Idvies and Rosemount herds to look forward to tomorrow before the finale at Netherton on Sunday, it’s set to be a weekend to remember!
Sale news:
The international gathering at Kingston Farm in Forfar for the Sale of Dunlouise Native Scottish Aberdeen-Angus Cattle on Monday 26th June, where people travelled from far and wide to attend the sale. The top price on the day went to 14-month-old bull, Dunlouise Newman S615, sired by Jubilant 2 of Bohey and out of Dunlouise Nina N506. The bull sold for an impressive 14,000gns to Harrison O’Connor of Montana, USA.
Other news:
We’ve recently added a merchandise section to our website where you can get your hands on a variety of different Aberdeen-Angus products. You can view the merchandise available at: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/assets/2017/Merchandise-poster-2017-web-2.pdf
We look forward to bringing you a report from a very exciting weekend and the culmination of the World Angus Forum next week – have a great one!