Harestone Prince, a homozygous polled Charolais bull bred by the Barclay family at Insch, Aberdeenshire, has been sold privately for £16,000 to Middlesbrough-based breeder, Rob Jones.

Believed to be the most expensive polled Charolais bull sold in the UK, Harestone Prince will be used in Mr Jones’ expanding Dromonby herd after he bought the Alwent herd three years ago.

The purchaser, who has also been investing heavily in pedigree Texels recently, is looking to build up a Charolais herd of 100 pedigree polled cows.

“I’m looking to go down the polled route by using the top genetics from across the world, including embryos from the Silverstream herd in New Zealand. Harestone Prince is an easy fleshing bull with great shape and the genetics to match,” said Mr Jones.

An AI son of the Australian sire, Palgrove Justice, Prince is out of the first batch of embryos from Harestone Helene, a cow which the Barclays imported from France.

Stuart Barclay added: “We were looking for a polled cow and Helene was the best one we had ever seen – we are excited to develop this breeding line further. Apart from the advantage of being polled, Prince also looks the part and has exceptional weight for age. We have retained some semen from him.”