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Profile of a Cultybraggan Limousin Cow
James Irvine
Director,Teviot Scientific at Cultybraggan Farm,
Comrie, Perthshire
Filed 12 May 04
© land-care.org.uk
Cultybraggan Farm runs a suckler herd of cattle
amounting to over 110 cows plus their followers: in-calf and bulling
heifers, bullocks and young calves. It has been a closed herd for
over 4 years, meaning that no replacements have been bought in over
that time, greatly reducing the risks of importing disease. This
necessitates keeping a range of bulls to avoid the problems of inbreeding.
Broadly the herd consists of 25% pedigree Aberdeen
Angus cows, 25% pedigree Limousin cows and 50% as crosses between
Aberdeen Angus and Limousin and vice versa.
In building up this herd over the past 15 years
care has been taken to breed cows with good milk production and
easy calving, high health status, strong maternal instincts and
placid temperament. The aim has been to also select for good confirmation
but not at the expense of excessive beefiness, which increases the
risks of poor milk production and calving difficulties. Having been
an initial ardent follower of Meat and Livestock Commission/Signet
Estimated Beef Values (EBV's) this lead to disillusionment as the
usefulness of such figures for breeding herd replacements is highly
questionable if not frankly misleading.
Also important is the selection of bulls to be
used in creating such the closed suckler herd. Bulls in such circumstances
should fall into two categories. Those whose purpose is to help
breed good female replacements, and those whose purpose is to produce
beef (terminal sires in sheep speak). These are two quite different
functions, but when at any pedigree bull sale that I know of has
a bull been given a ticket for being a good producer of suckler
cows?
The cow featured in figs 1-3 has bloodlines over
at least two generations that are known by pedigree breeders to
be associated with good milk production. My impression is that there
are remarkably few of such bloodlines about. Sadly, in my view,
little if any confidence can be put on Sigent/MLC EBV scoring for
milk production or ease of calving.
Figure 1: A good pedigree Limousin cow:
excellent milk production, good enough confirmation, placid temperament
and a history of easy calving.
Figure 2: The new-born calf is not too big, gets
up quick and knows where to go
with the encouragement of its mother who gives it a good licking
(For an enlarged view
Click Here)
Figure 3: Doing nicely. The cow needs good nutrition
to maintain the milk supply and access to a source of high magnesium
to avoid the condition known as "staggers" especially
if put onto good spring grass.
This article features a pedigree
Limousin cow. Such a cow is highly relevant as the most widely used
terminal sire in the UK is a Limousin bull on account of its reputation
as having good confirmation. But quality meat in the commercial
market is not just based on quantity but on eating quality, which
in the UK is notoriously variable.
The Aberdeen Angus breed has long
had the reputation for good eating quality, but this reputation
has been tarnished in the UK by such enterprises as Aberdeen Angus
Steak Houses, where it is alleged that the amount of Aberdeen Angus
breeding in the product was variable. Also the labelling of meat
in the supermarkets still does not define just how much Aberdeen
Angus is in a so called Aberdeen Angus steak, nor what else is in
it. The shopper is encouraged to think of Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks
and Spencers as being brands of beef - quite remote from whatever
the breeding might have been.
In the background of the above figures
black cows are to be seen. These are not black Limousins - a highly
unfortunate development by a small but influential minority within
the British Limousin Cattle Society and which that society is fighting
hard - although belatedly - to have such cattle excluded as British
registerable pedigree Limousins. Rather it would be better to breed
cattle with a clearly defined AA and Limousin genetics with the
aim of keeping as much as possible of the eating quality of Aberdeen
Angus and improving the conformation of the Aberdeen Angus by introducing
a known amount of Limousin genetics.
This might lead to a new breed. Indeed
certain breeders in Ireland are trying to do just that but unfortunately
in the eyes of many were too devious in their marketing with the
use of the name Aberdeen Angus. If there is to be such a new breed
it should be given a name that contains neither the words Aberdeen
Angus or Limousin - it should be a called something entirely different.
At last the Aberdeen Cattle Society
has adopted the Australian devised scoring system for cattle called
Breedplan. |nstead of denying the possible importance of marbling
in muscle (intramuscular fat) the Australian programme encourages
its measurement. Breeders of cattle should then be better placed
in trying to breed cattle so as to provide beef that the different
types of consumer want for different occasions. It should also enable
some much needed and relevant objectivity into beef production in
terms of eating quality. The Australians and the Americans have
done it: it is about time we in the UK and especially in Scotland
cottoned on.
On starting a new herd the most important
thing to do is to get the foundation cow/s right.
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