Bi-Weekly Update – Friday 12th February 2021:

IMPORTANT MEMBER NOTICE

 THE ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE SOCIETY

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2020

Due to unforeseen circumstances there will be a delay in issuing the Annual Report this year due to Covid-19 and a delay in the audit process (due to the auditors being on furlough for part of the year and now they have a backlog to catch up on). Rest assured this will be mailed out to the membership as soon as it is practically possible.

The AGM will NOT be taking place as usual in February 2021 at the Stirling Bull Sales due to the Covid-19 restrictions and a delay with the Annual Report.  We envisage this taking place via zoom to protect the health of our membership. As soon as we know more we will let you know.

Society Announcement: The Sad Passing of Donald Biggar OBE:

It is with great sadness that I have to report the sudden and unexpected passing of Donald Biggar of the renowned Chapelton herd. Donald was a great stalwart of native British beef breeds and his Aberdeen-Angus herd and the ethos on which it was run was well renowned throughout the Aberdeen-Angus membership. He was known by many and will be sadly missed by all who had the opportunity to meet and interact with him.

Chapleton had pedigree herds of Aberdeen-Angus, Beef Shorthorn and a 250 head of commercial cattle that was maintained with genetics from the two pedigree herds. This kept the focus on the commercial worth of the pedigree herds by harvesting data on everything that was possible to evaluate and having a rigorous selection programme on bulls and females retained in the herd. It is very fitting and opportune that Chapleton is part of the South West Scotland focus in the Review this year.

Donald was also a very active man outside the farm with involvement with many organisations including the Royal Smithfield Club, Quality Meat Scotland, Scottish Agricultural College, WCF to mention but a few. His input to the many organisations that he was a member of was always considered and constructive and without doubt added value to each one of them and will be sadly missed.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to Emma, James, Rachel and Duncan at this very sad time and any further information that we can give you on the arrangements will be communicated when they are available.

Barrie L. Turner

CEO

Society Announcement: The Sad Passing of Trevor Stebbings:

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of Trevor Stebbings on the 1st February 2021, peacefully at his home.

Due to the current situation there will be a private family funeral.  A full obituary will follow in due course.

Lively Trade for Aberdeen-Angus Bulls as Birches Leads Dungannon Entry at 5,100gns:

Aberdeen-Angus bulls attracted a steady trade and reached a ceiling of 5,100gns at the Society’s regional sale, hosted by Dungannon Farmers’ Mart on Tuesday 9th February 2021.

Auctioneer Trevor Wylie described the sale as lively and confirmed that 12 lots achieved a 92% clearance, averaging £3,613 per head – an increase of £446 on the same period last year.

“Trade was brisk from start to finish, with ringside and online bidders keen to acquire Aberdeen-Angus stock bulls for their dairy and suckler enterprises. “

Topping trade at 5,100gns was the twenty-month-old Birches Bellboy V916 bred by the Matchett family – Nigel, Gail, Sarah and Sam from Portadown, who were 2020 winners of the NI Aberdeen-Angus Club’s best large herd award. Click here to read full report and see photos from Tuesday’s sale.

Upcoming Society Sales…

United Auctions, Stirling February Bull Sales:

Saturday 20th February 2021

Inspection/Parade – 10am

Sale – 1pm

CATALOGUE

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

BUYER REGISTRATION

All buyers must register for the sale for either attending or bidding online.

You must only register to attend the sale if you have a genuine intention to buy a bull.

There is no spectator element to this event.

In the event of buyer registrations exceeding capacity, a ballot will be drawn to determine attendance.

General public, trade and others not directly involved in sales must not attend.

• Respect the 2m social distancing
• Strictly one customer per farming enterprise
• Facemasks must be worn at all times
• No under 16’s

ANM Thainstone Spring Pedigree Bull Sale:

Wednesday 24th February 2021

CATALOGUE

There will be a parade of bulls at 12.00 noon in Exchange Hall which will be screened live along with the sale which will have the addition of internet bidding.

All buyers must pre-register their attendance by contacting the main office on 01467 623710

This sale also has an online bidding facility, to register for online bidding please click here

For any queries with the sale of bulls please contact John Angus on 07801 186312

Southern Spring Show & Sale of Pedigree & Commercial Aberdeen-Angus Cattle:

Worcester Livestock Market, Nunnery Way, Worcester WR4 0SQ

Saturday 3rd April 2021

Entries close on Friday 19th February 2021 – for entry forms contact Worcester Market: (01905) 769770 or worcester@mccartneys.co.uk

SCHEDULE

Multibreed Pedigree Sale at Melton Mowbray Market – Saturday 27th March 2021:

Multibreed Pedigree Sale of bulls & females

Saturday 27th March 2021

Melton Mowbray Market, Scalford Road, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE13 1JY

Entry forms are to be completed and sent back to Melton Mowbray Market no later than the 25th February 2021

ENTRY FORM & HERD HEALTH DECLARATION

Please contact Caroline or Fiona in the registrations department to let them know which animals you are putting forward to the sale ASAP this is to ensure animals have a DNA & MYOSTATIN result at time of sale.

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

News & Notices from CEO, Barrie Turner:

• Covid-19 still dominates the press and it still goes about it’s daily chore of disruption to anything normal happening and it looks more and more like we are resigned to life never returning to normal.
• The office staffing levels remain at the low level which continues like every other service to affect the speed and effectiveness in the way we have to operate.
• I can assure you all we are doing out upmost in the circumstances prevailing with many other factors affecting our service at this point other than Covid-19 that we are working our way through.
• We are always affected by bull sale activity in January with all the necessary preparation work to be done on each lot consigned to make sure all information gathered is correct.
• This falls on both departments downstairs with catalogue preparation and also entry verification as constant chasing is required to try our best to have everything that we can fully declared when it goes to sale.
• This affects our ability to progress with registrations normal service every year and I keep thinking that it must be going to get better as we get more animas tested up front but as always more work to do on that one.
• Brexit has created the need for one of the biggest changes in the way we have gone about our business since the Society started. The infrastructure for our EU based herd book in Ireland continues to dominate.
• Negotiations all but completed on both sides of the Irish sea and ways of working established and financial security for the new company approved.
• We get lots of interesting enquiries through the office and with the help of our living breed encyclopaedia Eddie Gillanders, Judy Blackman from Canada now has the full SP behind a medal she had bought as Eddie says it may not be off the top of his head but knows where the bodies are buried!

 

The bull is Remormon of Douneside, a famous bull bred and owned by MacRobert Farms Ltd, Douneside, Tarland, Aberdeenshire, the farming company of the MacRobert Trust. The Douneside herd was founded and owned by Lady MacRobert, the widow of Sir Alexander MacRobert, who was born in Aberdeenshire and from lowly beginnings built up a very successful business career in India in the early part of last century which enabled him to buy the Douneside Estate. Remormon of Douneside had an outstanding show career and won just about every trophy within his range, except the championship at the Royal Show in England. His tally of awards  was 20 championships, nine supreme championships and eight reserve, supreme championships at the national and regional shows, including the junior championship at the Royal Highland Show in 1950 as a yearling, supreme and male champion at the Highland and Great Yorkshire shows in 1951 and reserve supreme and male champion at the Royal. He was also chosen to represent the breed at the BBC Television Show at Earls Court, London, in August, 1954. He was also obviously champion at the Great Yorkshire in 1954, where he won the medal you have. He is described in the records of the breed as having had one of the most remarkable showyard careers on record. He died in 1958. The number 134076 is Remormon’s number in the Aberdeen-Angus Herd Book.

• Every day is a school day and we designed an ad for the Dungannon sale with a little to much detail for newsprint as opposed to magazine print making it difficult to read lesson learned!
• Amy Johnstone is doing a good job with the sales and is getting her experience broadened during the quiet time the new fixture at Melton Mowbray is in her care and she is doing a good job of it.
• Always a sad moment when we have to report the loss of a member and in the last period Donald Biggar and Trevor Stebbings, both important people for different reasons passed away and will be missed.
• David Ismail continues to lay the foundations to make his presidential year one to remember and it is shaping up to be a very busy one for all concerned so buckle up and enjoy the ride!
• We have enlisted a bit of specialist help in the form of Lucy Andrews Noden to help us evaluate the best ways methods and procedures to embark on our journey with Genomics in the UK with the brief that we need to get it right from the start!
• We have established some members of a sub committee to work away on the DNA aspects of what we do and what we use it for too and develop some refinements to our current processes again with some expertise from outside our ranks to offer an independent view.
• A further sub committee to look at our ways of working with the AI companies and schemes to make more use of our data and performance recording and become aligned with evaluation of bulls from home grown genetics is not left out of the choices.
• We have finally got the audit report back on the AACS accounts for our year ended 31/10/2020 the annual report is out with council for approval and this will now trigger the virtual AGM notice. Thanks to Angela Cumming and Helena Stewart for their efforts with the finances.
• A meeting with our brokers to review our portfolios and their performance last year has been done and what looked like a disaster last year has recovered well but both report we are not out of the woods yet.
• Bull sale format finally confirmed on the 3^rd February, we have had to revert to the same format of live sale as October where we will have all AA cattle sold on Saturday with the following additions – streamed live parade of all lots after inspection and also the facility to register and bid online for those who can’t make it to the sale.
• I would ask that the guidelines, on social distancing when issued should be adhered to as any compromises of them will put the market sales avenue in the spotlight and any irresponsibility may lead to the authorities curtailing their activities. As a Society we would not want to be responsible for this.
• I have been notified that the usual “trade stands” and literature will not be allowed we will however be making face masks available for all attendees but please remember to bring your own pen!
• The very different REVIEW is hitting the doorsteps finally and the initial feedback is very good and a good read, so we have set ourselves a benchmark again for next year.
• The changes in handling the REVIEW and information exchange processes have been revised for next year and the timeframes for content, all earlier I hasten to add have been revised so book ads early again anytime from now would be helpful!!
• News is breaking this week in the meat press of a collaboration between AHDB and Identigen on traceability of, meat through the supply chain using DNA! I have heard of that somewhere before interested to see m9re on that as it develops. Click here to find out more.
• Saturday the 6^th February 2.00pm I had to put my phone down for a couple of hours while I had a very big new hip fitted through a very big new scar on my getting very old but! All went well and thank you to many of you for your calls emails and general good wishes.
• Light duties resumed on Sunday when returning home with a return to medium duties on Tuesday and back to full on duties and business as normal on Wednesday.
• It is well recognised that Social media can be a wonderful thing when it is used correctly and works for you it can take you to new audiences and promote your business. It can also have the complete opposite effect.
• Please take great care when posting on any social media sites either under the Society banner or any other Aberdeen-Angus banner on the content that you put out, it may be read completely differently to someone else to the manner that it is intended.
• A new phrase came into my vocabulary this week and its “time theft” not come across that one before, it means that matters which are not a priority at the time take over and rob you of precious hours that could be spent productively.
• This new phrase will be a very useful one for me as we revisit the workloads in the office and start to look at tasks that we do that create this phenomenon! It is important that when we have so many plates spinning as we have at the moment that every precious hour of resource that we have is focussed on keeping things spinning and time is not diverted up pathway’s where it is gone forever and wasted.

 

• I will not be able to attend the bull sales but am having to work from home in Lincolnshire for a period until I am fit enough to drive again but fully back in harness after the operation. But it is all in good hands and organised and good luck to all vendors and purchasers with their consignments.
• It leaves me to ask you to stay safe and keep free of the virus and keep flying the Aberdeen-Angus flag wherever you are!

 

News & Notices from Office Manager, Laura Stewart:

• A voting paper for nominations to Council for 2021 will have arrived by post for members in Scotland, England and Wales to vote on their preferred Council candidate to represent the England and Wales South constituency.  Please note that the closing date to return nominations is 19^th February and nominations should be posted direct to our auditors as detailed on the form and not returned to Pedigree House.
• We continue to receive a large amount of phone and email enquiries at present.  If possible, please email your enquiry as it is not always possible to receive phone calls due to being on a call or if taking part in a virtual meeting at the time of your call.

News & Notices from the Accounts Department:

2021 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

• A kindly reminder that membership for 2021 is due to be paid, if not already done so.  You can pay by either cheque, internet banking or credit card.  Please don’t forget to quote your membership number when making payments.

 RECEIVING SOCIETY INVOICES BY EMAIL

• In order to try and save on postage costs we would like to send our invoices by email.  If you have not already done so, can you please provide us with your details?

Please click on the link below…

INVOICES BY EMAIL

News & Notices from Registrations:

• We are processing registrations as quickly as we can but we already have a small backlog – please bear with us.  While there are only two of us things will take a little longer.
•  We have been in discussion with Weatherbys and they have confirmed that Microsatellite DNA testing will be  phased out at the end of 2021.  Therefore it is really important to check that your stock bull has a SNPS profile on file.  On the database any bull with a DNA reference starting with G will have the correct profile.  We are in the process of identifying any bulls that don’t have these and we will be sending out hair kits for samples in the next couple of weeks.  Please return these samples as soon as possible.
• Again if you flush any females please check their DNA status at the time of flushing.  For ET calves both sire and dam must be DNA profiled.

News & Notices from Pedigree Cattle Services:

• The GeneProb results have been updated for the four main genetic conditions (AM, CA, NH or DD) these are now available in your members downloads.
•  GeneProb utilises the basic principles of inheritance to estimate the probabilities of specific genes being present in a wider, related population than the animals with DNA test results available. It allows breeders to focus on animals that require testing, instead of testing all animals
• For further instructions on how to download files and manage genetic conditions click here
• If any members have photos of sale animals, and you would like them uploaded onto the website catalogues please send them directly to Barbara: barbara@breedplan.co.uk

News & Notices from YDP:

The NEW 2021 YDP competitions are now open for young people to take part in…

Cattle and Land Management (CALM) competition for seniors and intermediates (14-24 yrs)

Marketing and Promotion (MAP) competition for our junior members (8-13 yrs)

Details and packs for both competitions can be down loaded from the Youth Development page or by clicking on the links below…

YDP Cattle and Land Management Competition 2021

YDP Marketing and Promotion Competition 2021

WORKSHOPS:

All workshops dates and venues are in the REVIEW and the Society websites calendar, however at this time due to Covid-19 restrictions, we cannot guarantee that these will be going ahead.  Please keep an eye out on social media and in the Bi-Weekly Updates for confirmation.  We would suggest that if you wish to attend you should let your Regional Co-ordinator know so they can keep you informed of updates and any possible changes.

News & Notices from the Ireland Office:

• Carrick-on-Shannon Bull Sale

The first of the Spring bull sales for 2021 in the Republic of Ireland will take place at The Showgrounds, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim on Saturday, February 13^th at 12 midday. The sale has attracted an entry of 55 pedigree Aberdeen-Angus bulls (with a small selection of pedigree Aberdeen-Angus heifers catalogued too) with many 5 star and easy calving bulls available. The sale will be conducted online, with all prospective buyers required to register with LSL in advance of the sale and for more details on how to register, please contact the mart directly on 086 3883112. The catalogue of the sale can be viewed here

• Job Vacancy

The Irish Aberdeen-Angus Association is inviting applications for the position of general manager. Applications must be submitted by February 28^th and for details on how to apply and for more information on what the role entails, please click here

From us all at the Society have a great weekend and stay safe!