OUT-TAKE:

'Breeding cattle for colour is, of course, not unusual in Britain. In my youth the popular suckler cow in the Borders was the Blue-grey – a Whitebred Shorthorn cross Galloway in Scotland'

William McCombie, who farmed Tillyfour, near Alford, started adult life as a cattle dealer before leasing the farm from his father and this early experience taught him everything there was to know about cattle.

He learned that those which paid him best were the black polled kinds native to Aberdeenshire and Angus. Following pioneering work by Hugh Watson, of Keillour, in Angus, he started to develop his own herd. In contrast to Watson – who was secretive about his breeding methods – McCombie wrote a book about his experiences.

'Cattle and cattle breeders' is a delightful little book which I have read and reread many times. It is full of anecdotes about cattle, their trading at the Crieff and Falkirk Trysts and of his own breeding and management techniques.

When I proposed the toast to the Aberdeen-Angus breed at the breed's World Forum in 2005, in South Africa, I quoted from the little book. A South African lady asked where she could get a copy. I explained that the book had been published in 1869 and was long out of print.

It ran to three additions so, although scarce, copies could still be found. I found her a copy for £100 and sent it off. For a year, I heard nothing and wrote off the experience. Soon, I was to receive a pleasant surprise.

A parcel arrived from the lady containing two books. The first was by the South African Professor Jan Bonsma. Bonsma had fair claim to knowing more about the physiology of cattle than anyone alive in the 20th century.

On his lecture tours in North America, he repeatedly amazed hard bitten ranchers with his ability to tell the life histories in detail about cattle which he had never previously seen. The books he wrote are rare and contain information about breeding cattle which I have never seen anywhere else.

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The second book was a coffee table book, rather than a work of serious reference. 'The abundant herds is about the cattle owned by the Nguni and Zulu races. Their cattle are often their entire wealth and are an important part of their culture.

Great significance is attached to the shape of their horns and even more the colours and patterns of their hides. These were linked to natural features such as patterns on the hides of wild animals and particularly the plumage of local birds.

The book interested me but only in a superficial way as, unlike Bonsma’s book, it was so completely different from my own breeding philosophy. Others, happily, are less dismissive of the importance of colour than me.

Pictures and videos from the Agribition event, in Western Canada, a month ago feature a breed popular there, but almost unknown in Scotland, the Speckled Park. The breed is reputed to trace back to a cow which was traded in Saskatchewan in 1905.

It was not recorded whether or not she was a registered Angus, but when she was mated to a registered Angus bull her calves were speckled, like an Appaloosa horse. When subsequent generations were mated to Angus bulls over a 50-year period, the unusual colour seemed dominant.

Initially, they were called Lamont Blues after rancher WB Lamont who, about 1950, started putting speckled cattle together. Possibly other speckled cattle have been introduced since then and the breed is now known as the Speckled Park. It remains of the Angus-type, except for the beautiful and distinctive coat colour.

Breeding cattle for colour is, of course, not unusual in Britain. In my youth the popular suckler cow in the Borders was the Blue-grey. They were sired by the Whitebred Shorthorn, which had evolved from the Cumberland Dairy Shorthorn and when crossed with a Galloway, left a light blue, or light roan calf that were more highly valued than those which left darker calves or those of broken colour.

In Ireland, a similar type of Shorthorn did the same when crossed with pure or cross-bred Angus cows. Their offspring, known as the Irish Blue-grey, entered Scotland in their thousands. Most were out of the house cows on the small farms in the West of Ireland and were virtually pets.

They were gathered up by the dealers and shipped to Glasgow. The downside to their lovely nature was that, despite Irish guarantees, many failed initially the TB and later the brucellosis tests and had to be culled, never to be replaced.

Three decades later those who restocked from the same source, lost cattle to BSE. As before, their Irish breeders claimed that they never had a case.

Coat colour still remains an important consideration with some of our main breeds. Too much white on the underline of an Angus and it can’t be registered. A roan Shorthorn sells better than a red, white or broken coloured one.

Some Limousin breeders favour a lighter coat, others a darker one. Simmentals, too, come in several colours. Despite the saying that a good beast is never a bad colour, the price it makes at auction tells a different story.

For some years, we have bred Speckled Parks. We run them in the field in front of my house which runs down to the busy A6105 road. Many farmers and others have asked me what they were.

Apart from when they are with the bull, they run with the Aberdeen-Angus cows. They are polled and of similar conformation to the Angus, but smaller.

They are little trouble, very quiet and calf on time. We weigh and record the calves but value equally their beauty. They will never be a big part of our operation. We just like them.