The dust has finally settled after the Christmas and New Year break and the majority of us across the UK and Ireland are back into the swing of things with working life. As we bring you the first bi-weekly update of 2019, we must begin by saying a huge Happy New Year to all – we hope that this year is one filled with prosperity, happiness and success.
Upon returning to work for the new year, things at the Society have hit the ground running with lots of important and exciting work and developments. We were able to finalise the 101st edition of the Aberdeen-Angus Review which has been out for delivery to all members this week set to arrive on Monday/Tuesday, whilst preparations for the year’s first major event and our AGM at Stirling Bull Sales have been well underway. We look forward to seeing many of you there at Stirling Agricultural Centre at 3.45pm on Sunday 3rd February as we look to kick off the year with a positive meeting of minds looking at how we can continue on our path to drive our great breed.
Here is all the need-to-know news from the Society over the last few weeks.
News Roundup
The Review successfully went to print and is now out for distribution to members. We look forward to hearing your feedback and hope you all agree that it is packed with useful and interesting content, from technically focussed pieces to information about our members and their particular processes. Those of you who look closely enough at the Review will notice that we will be launching a brand-new Society website in the coming months. Work is well underway for this and we look forward to introducing that to all members in a few months’ time – stay posted for updates. Alongside the hard copies, we will be uploading the Review to our current website for those of you who prefer to do your reading online. We will be sure to let you all know as soon as it is live next week.
We told you about how 2019 is shaping up to be a very exciting and busy year for the Irish Aberdeen-Angus Association; not least as a result of the recent announcement of a brand-new genomic testing scheme. Details of the scheme first emerged in the Irish farming press in the days before Christmas and this new project will be the first of many new initiatives and developments that the Irish Aberdeen-Angus Association have in the works for the New Year.
We kicked off our Youth Development Programme for the year by securing the date for the 2019 Senior Conference. The Senior Conference this year will be held in and around Nantwich in Cheshire where there has been a range of activities of interest to the senior members of the YDP. The date to save is Friday 22nd February – Sunday 24th February 2019 and we look forward to another successful event and year for our YDP. For booking/registration and further information, follow the links below:
YDP yearly registration forms have gone out with the annual reports, but just in case you need to access one please click the link below, complete the form and send it back to Pedigree House or email it to ydp@aberdeen-angus.co.uk and we will keep you informed of what’s going on in the YDP arena in 2019.
We received some good news this week from Japan as the demand for British produced beef and lamb in the Far East continues with the announcement of the lifting of the ban on beef and lamb exports (we don’t need to worry about Japan being in the EU!). See below the announcement with some big numbers on the values:
Japan opens market to British Beef and Lamb
In some very exciting and proud news for all associated to the Society, Aberdeen-Angus breeder and one of the most well-respected figures in agricultural circles, John Henning of Maghaberry, Moira, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland was named as a recipient of the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s Honours List for 2019. Congratulations to John and Family from all at the Society.
Finally, we brought our #FestiveFarming Christmas competition to a close on our Facebook page. The competition was a great success with so many of you getting involved and sending in your caption suggestions – we certainly had a great laugh in the office! A big congratulations to the competition winner Herbie Blackburn.
Keep up to date with all news over on our website at the following links:
News and Features: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/
Show and Sales News: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/show-and-sales/
Stock for Sale: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/news/stock-for-sale/
News and notices from the CEO
Happy New Year to you all from us all in the office, and as I approach the one-year mark in my post, who knows where that year went! It’s been a busy end to the last year and equally busy start to 2019 in the office, and I guess that won’t be changing in a hurry.
2018 saw us receiving the news that Gayle Bersey felt that it was time to move on after ten years as the YDP Co-ordinator. We wish Gayle well and thank her for her efforts, time and commitment to take our programme to where it is today.
Finalisation of the last few points of the Review took a little longer than expected and this made it run over the Christmas break to be resolved. Hopefully you find this year’s edition to be informative, educational and interesting from cover to cover.
The preparation of the Annual Accounts for both A-ACS and the IA-AA and annual report took up some time and resource as the last year closed out, but the team in the office delivered on time and in full. Well done to the full team for that.
The return to work in 2019 had certain priorities, including the restructuring of the YDP following Gayle’s decision. The YDP committee has been working hard to resolve the situation and deliver a great Senior Conference whilst also making steps to make it work well going forward.
The process of refining the DNA process with both our providers goes on and improvements to the analysis, reporting and functionality of this initiative continue. Preparation for the February Bull Show and Sale, the AGM and trophy presentation continue, and we look forward to welcoming the judge from 1969, Mr Luis Fernando Cirne Lima, fifty years to the day when he came from Brazil to judge at Perth.
A kick-off meeting with Denvir has taken place to start work on the new website, with many modifications to the functionality planned and the opportunity to present the first draft to Council at the March meeting for review, comment and adjustment where necessary being the next step.
Work continues in the redevelopment of the CAAB scheme with thoughts being pooled and discussed. The DNA initiative is an important part of this and, although a lengthy process, it is extremely important that we make this work to our breed’s future.
I will be attending the British Cattle Breeders Conference on Tuesday 22nd January with speakers from all parts of the beef industry for what will be an interesting and informative day, with hopefully some good messages to bring back to you from that in the next update.
Looking forward to visiting the East Anglia Aberdeen-Angus Club AGM which will complete my tour of the Clubs, to meet with the members in that part of the world coupled with some herd visits.
An invitation has been received to the Royal Smithfield Club on the 29th January for an industry forum on the future needs of the British Red Meat supply chain, with some high-powered speakers on the subject. I will take careful notes and will report back in the next bi-weekly report on anything relevant to our membership.
The team here are also looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Bull Sales in Stirling, and we hope to keep bringing positive steps forward for the Society and its membership throughout 2019.
News and notices from Laura Stewart (Office Manager)
Sunday 3rd February 2019 – Stirling Agricultural Centre
- AGM time is 3.45pm
- Drinks reception and prize giving – 6.00pm – some tickets still available @ £10 per person
- The next Council meeting will be held this day also – any member wishing to raise any points with Council should do so through their local Council representative in advance of the meeting
News and notices from Angela Cumming (Finance Department)
- As always, the return to work at the new year starts with the annual report mailing which the office team set about and achieved
- You will have also received your annual subscription invoice and the prompt settlement of that would be appreciated
- Don’t forget you can pay by card over the phone this year or by direct debit or standing order
News and notices from the Registrations Department
- As we start the new year the sale season gets itself underway and this demands certain information to go along with your entries as per the society sale rules
- We need to have DNA sample results back in plenty of time for your entries and also the health declarations from you as early as possible please
- Upcoming sales that we need to be aware of are:
- Dungannon April
- Carlisle May Sale
- Stirling May sale
- Worcester Spring Sale
- DNA should become less of a problem going forward as we are testing all male calves included in the registration cost from 2019. If you can help us through the transition period it would help greatly!
- As calves start to hit the ground for this season, prompt notification of intimation and registration would be appreciated so that we can keep up
News and notices from the Pedigree Cattle Services Team
- As always, the team in PCS will welcome new members who would like to join in the performance recording through Breedplan. If you want to understand more on how performance recording can help you please contact the team on 01738 448346
Shows, Sales and Events
Stirling Bull Sales 3rd – 4th February.
- Saturday 2nd February – Bull Inspection from 11.30am
- Sunday 3rd February – Show of Aberdeen-Angus Bulls and Females from 9.45am
- Sunday 3rd February – Society Annual General Meeting in the Conference Suite UA at 3.45pm
- Sunday 3rd February – Drinks reception and prize giving in Conference Suite UA from 6.00pm – 7.30 pm – tickets available from Pedigree House @£10.00 / head
- Monday 4th February – Sale of Aberdeen-Angus Bulls and Females from 10.30am
Merchandise
We still have limited stock available from our great range of merchandise which can be viewed on our website at: http://aberdeen-angus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/attachments/Merchandise-poster-2018-web.pdf.
If you are attending the February Bull Sales please put in your order for any accessories via Yvonne@aberdeen-angus.co.uk and we will have your order ready for collection.
A great deal is our pure wool, Aberdeen Angus scarves for £25 – a worthwhile purchase this January when we consider that we still had snow and freezing conditions into March and April last year!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
