Wedderlie Farm

The land is best suited to traditional farming methods and Aberdeen Angus cattle are ideal, with low maintenance costs, good fertility and longevity. The herd is currently the largest in the UK with 170 cows, but to ensure the bulls we sell meet strict standards of conformation, soundness, growth & temperament, we register only 20 - 25% of male calves. These are sold privately or at Perth Sales in February & October and purchasers can be confident they will perform and breed well. Autumn born weaned steers are sold at our local market, St. Boswells, in October, while spring born steers are finished off grass and attract a significant premium as pure-bred AA beef. Selected heifers will again be offered at our annual draft sale in September 2003. This year we plan to hold a combined on-farm sale on 4thOctober to coincide with "The Best of Blacks in the Borders" Herd Tour.

T27 W.Ebbora by Horatio out of Ebb

U3 W.Pricelle by Horatio out of Poppy

Selection in the herd is governed by the commercial beef industry requirement for carcase weights of 350kg at a minimum grade of R4L under the EUROP grading system. However, to sustain a sound, productive cowherd, growth and weight must be balanced by maternal abilities and weaning weight is a good indication of growth and the dam's milking ability. Marbling, acknowledged worldwide as the prime factor in eating quality is not considered important by the MLC so we look at carcase figures for related bulls from other countries. Our herd sires are carefully selected to compliment and/or improve a combination of these important traits but growth probably has priority - weight pays before a move from R to U grade! Temperament is also a high priority and the cattle are well known for their docility.

The herd is MLC Signet recorded but individual traits, rather than the Beef Value, are considered in the selection of our homebred stock. As there is no international system to compare EBV’s & EPD’s, figures for imported bulls are initially penalised by being allocated the average of the UK herd in the base year 1980. The Spring calving cows were involved in the Suckler Cow Replacement Project in which height, pelvic length & width, weight, production etc are measured to produce eventually, genetic figures for the maternal traits of pure and cross-bred cattle.

In the wake of the BSE crisis in 1996 we were a founder member of the Scottish Borders Traceability Assurance Group (SBTAG), a pilot scheme to study the practicalities of electronic tagging. The concept was adopted by other parts of the world after successful demonstrations and the Scottish Executive eventually agreed in principle, with the promise of £6m funding, to electronically tag all cattle in Scotland. It is disappointing to see no further progress and to save costs we no longer use electronic tags.

Wedderlie also runs 1700 Blackface & Greyface ewes with their replacements. A Texel flock, now numbering 80 ewes, was introduced in 1999 with purchases from the Whitemire dispersal sale and more recently from the Barness flock. Shearling rams are sold at Kelso Ram sale in September. Texel tups have replaced the Bluefaced Leicester for prime lamb production from grass or kale, so we now breed for our own requirements. A reduced acreage of spring barley is grown for our own use.

Keeping up with the ever increasing bureaucracy would not be possible without the comprehensive Beef and Sheepcheck software programmes of Bob Nelson. (Nelson Educational Services). This caters for all the Ministry Schemes, registrations to the Society, data transfer to Signet, movements by e-mail to BCMS and it automatically downloaded weights and treatments from our electronic programme.

Welsh Section B and part-bred ponies, under the Wedderlie prefix, are all descended from 'Megan' purchased by Jenny in 1943. They are well known throughout the UK for their success in the show ring.