Refocusing on the pedigree aspect to produce an easy fleshing sellable Limousin bull, using the breed as both a terminal and a maternal breeder, is Sandy Hunter, Wedderburn, Huntly.
Sandy’s parents, Jim and Alyson, have focused on the commercial aspects for the last decade and Sandy now aims to really push the pedigree front again.
“The Limousin works well in our system, their mothering ability and milkiness ensures they are able to rear a good strong calf. They are easy fleshing with good shape which is what the modern market is all about. They also have a great commercial aspect being able to breed an animal for the store ring.
“We want something with a fair bit of shape, but everything else needs to be there as well. When breeding bulls you need to have what the market wants, with the aim to breed that something special,” said Sandy, who’s father, Jim, purchased his first Limousin French cow, Roulette, in 1982.
Two years later, Banside Twilight was bought in-calf at Perth Bull Sales in 1984, the resulting heifer calf was Wedderburn Vesta, and since then no other females have been bought in, everything goes back to Wedderburn Vesta.
Wedderburn Vesta bred the dam of the team’s first Perth Bull Sales champion in October 1993, Wedderburn Haig which went on to make 6500gns.
On the flip side the two bulls that have really made a mark in the herd was Newhouse Bannockburn, which was bought in February 2008 at Carlisle and Dyke Gladiator joined in February 2013, having been purchased from Stirling.
“Both have been really influential on the female front breeding the type of females we want, easy fleshed and milky, pairing well with what we were already working with,” said Sandy, with the new stock bull, Westpit Ollie, bought privately from Andrew Gammie, which is out of the notable dam, Brockhurst Holy.
Ollie has already proved his worth in the herd, with his first son being the dearest bull Sandy has sold, which was last October at Carlisle for 12,000gns, in the form of Wedderburn Rob Roy. The first Ollie daughters will be calving this November and we are really happy with how they are looking.
This year the family have two bulls on offer at October Bull Sales at Carlisle – Wedderburn Stormzy and Wedderburn Some Boy. Some Boy is by home-bred bull, Wedderburn Oochaboy, which was used in the spring of 2020 before being sold in October for 7500gns, whilst Stormzy has already made a name for himself when he stood junior male inter-breed champion at Turriff Show this year, as well as overall male champion at the Scottish grand Prix, being a son of the AI semen, Goldies Novelty.
“Although we don’t do a lot of showing, I do feel it is a good shop window for letting fellow breeders see what bulls you have available. Especially if we have ones for sale in October it definitely helps sell them and we are feeding them anyway.
“We will continue to take cattle out in small numbers to shows just to keep a hand in and continue to promote our herd. There is also a great social side which you can learn a lot from fellow breeders in conversation through a dram,” said Sandy, with this year being the first year having ventured to a proper Royal Highland Show and the Limousin bulls stood third and fourth in strong classes, and last year at the first Great Yorkshire Show for the team they went home with the reserve junior male champion ticket.
The reserve junior male champion was the the new stock bull, Sarkley Ronaldo, which was bought as a weaned calf at the Red Ladies Sale for his depth of breeding, with the first offspring born this year already looking very promising.
The dam side is just as important if not more so to Sandy as the sire, if the dam’s line is right, then everything else usually follows, which is why the best breeding cows are flushed at Wedderburn.
“By undertaking embryo work, we get the most out of the cows that are breeding well and try them with different bulls to improve the genetics throughout the herd without having to run as many females.
“We like the flexibility of using various combinations and seeing what is breeding well in the sale and show rings as well. If we get the right female and bulls to click you should have uniform calves throughout the herd,” said Sandy, with calving taking place all year round to ensure there is bulls to sell at different times of the year.
The best of the heifers will be retained in the herd for breeding, with any not making the pure Limousin route will be put to a Charolais bull, with all calves left entire. These Charolais cross heifer calves will mainly be sold through the store ring at United Auctions, Huntly, with the bull calves being finished through ABP, Perth.
“The Charolais and the Limousin are a great combination, shape, flesh and weight gain – what more could you want!” said Sandy.
On the sheep front it is a closed flock with everything being home-bred apart from the occasional stock tups with the main intentions to be as self-sufficient as possible. The whole flock is MV accredited - pedigree and commercial - which is easier for us to run everything together and opens another market for selling MV accredited stock.
“The Blackface breed are here for a job, they are one of the hardiest breeds for the hill and have strong mothering abilities to rear lambs in extreme terrain. They produce all of our own replacements for the flock,” said Sandy, with 400 being kept pure and the remaining 300 being crossed with the firm’s own home-bred Bluefaced Leicester ram lambs to produce the Scotch Mule lamb.
All Mule and Blackface wedder lambs will be sold fat, whilst Mule ewe lambs will be sold through United Auctions, Huntly or privately with 100 being retained each year to top up the 200 Mule flock which will be put to a Suffolk sire for producing the popular Suffolk Mule.
“Suffolk Mules are in high demand for the embryo work, they are good straight prolific mothers, and are early maturing sheep making ewe cycles that bit earlier for the embryo work,” added Sandy, with Suffolk tups purchased from Glenrock, Jalex and Carwood this year.
Having only just invested into pedigree Texels, Sandy is keen to push the pedigree front hard, having bred pures for many years.
“I enjoy breeding Texels with the main aim to produce a sellable tup with good skin and carcase, if you can get the magic head along with that you’ll not be too far away. You need to invest your time into it,” said Sandy, with his four foundation ewes purchased three years ago, three came from Andrew Clark, Teiglum and one from Jim Innes of Strathbogie.
Having just sold his first Texel tup lamb at Worcester for 3500gns. Next year Sandy aims to take a few tup lambs to all Society Sales to include Carlisle and Lanark as well. A few tups will also be kept as shearlings to be sold at Kelso and Huntly.
On the Bluefaced Leicester front, ram lambs will be sold at Carlisle and Hawes, with shearlings sold at Stirling and Huntly, whilst the ewe hoggs and gimmers also sold at Carlisle in January.
“We do a bit of flushing work on the Leicester front so we don’t require too many females, anything not good enough will be culled. We wouldn’t want anyone else buying something we wouldn’t breed ourselves,” added Sandy.
“But again, the main purpose of our system is to be as self sufficient as we can be, breeding good females and sellable tups and bulls to repeat customers,” concluded Sandy.
Farm Facts
Involvement: Jim and Alyson Hunter and their son, Sandy.
Background: Jim’s father purchased Wedderburn in the early 40s.
Livestock numbers: 50 cows plus followers, with the main aim for breeding pedigree Limousins, with the remaining being put to a Charolais bull for breeding store calves. On the sheep front there are 1000 ewes plus 300 hoggs consisting of 700 Blackfaces ¬– of which 400 are kept pure and 300 are crossed with the Bluefaced Leicester – 200 Mules and the remaining 100 ewes are a mix of pures, Suffolk Mules, Texels and Bluefaced Leicesters.
Farm acreage: 400 acres at Wedderburn which sits at 800ft above sea level and rises to 1500ft. The family take a lot of winter grazing to help carry the stock numbers.
On The Spot
Best investment? Westpit Ollie.
Best advice? Stick to the type you like but be open to change.
Biggest achievement? Selling Wedderburn Rob Roy for 12,000gns at Carlisle.
Where do you see yourself in 2032? Bald!!! On the farm, not to dissimilar from where we are now, working with the same system aiming to improve the breeding of our livestock every year.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here