Pedigree cattle breeder Anne MacPherson of the Blackford Simmental herd is set to tackle the task of judging two inter-breed beef competitions at this years Royal Welsh Show. Katrina Macarthur reports.
Making up a crucial member of the noted stock-keepers tasked with judging top-quality livestock forward at the Royal Welsh Show later this month is Anne MacPherson, of the Blackford Simmental herd, near Inverness.
From numerous five-figure bull sales, an abundance of champion rosettes and producing the current Simmental breed record, the Blackford prefix has become synonymous with pedigree cattle since the herd was founded in 1978.
The herd by Annes father, Billy, who is still there to give Anne a helping hand along with her mum, Judy.
Following huge classes of top-quality livestock, Ms MacPherson is set to judge two pinnacle beef competitions on the day: the junior beef inter-breed championship and the Fitzhugh championship for beef pairs.
Familiar
Familiar with the process, Ms MacPherson has judged at many shows over the years to include the Simmental National Show at Tullamore in 2019, Stirling Bull Sales in 2018 and the beef breeder and junior inter-breed sections at the Royal Highland Show in 2009.
She is also a great supporter of the Royal Highland as well as local shows, this year taking a first in the cow class with Blackford Hyalite as well as winning the Beef Breeder competition with Blackford Localhero at the Ingliston event.
Ms MacPherson says: It is a huge honour to be judging at such a prestigious event in the UK farming calendar, particularly when I am being tasked with judging so many different breeds in the one class.
The atmosphere always looks fantastic on television, so I am really looking forward to being a part of that.
When judging, I will be taking all breed characteristics into consideration and will be looking for the commercial attributes of each animal. In the Fitzhugh championship, I will be after a well-balanced pair of the same type which represents the breed.
The 40-hectare (100-acre) tenanted Blackford unit has been Ms MacPhersons home all of her life, with her father moving there in 1970.
Now the family run 25 Simmental cows and 350 Blackface ewes, of which the majority are tupped to the Bluefaced Leicester to produce Highland Mule ewe lambs and 40 bred pure to produce home-bred replacements.
The Mule ewe lambs are sold at the Highland Mule Breeders Association high health sale at Dingwall Auction Mart, where the family regularly produces the champion pen and a strong flock average.
They also rent a further 32ha (80 acres) of inbye grass fields situated 20 miles from home, rising to 1,000 feet above sea level.
Process
Although Simmentals have been at Blackford for more than 40 years, the family admit it was a lengthy process to get to where they are now, as out of the first 25 Simmental calves born on the farm, only one was a heifer.
Dads first Simmental bull was Beaufort Corinthian, which he used on mainly Cumberland Shorthorn cross cows and then he decided to purchase the first pedigree female Hetton Ermine, says Ms MacPherson.
We continued to buy in females from leading dispersals but the one that stood out was Irish Helen, purchased in 1983. It went on to breed Blackford Nesta, which was a consistent breeder and the dam of the previous breed record holder, the 14,000gns Blackford Trident, sold at Perth in October 1988.
Tridents sire, Hockenhull Mavel, bred well for the herd in its early years, followed by Rosten Barney and another Hockenhull bull the 16,000gns Hockenhull Waterloo, which sired Capercaillie, as well as the herds next top auction price to date of 18,000gns for Blackford Findhorn, sold in 2015.
The Blackford herd has bred a number of standout bulls over the years, including Blackford Galaxy, which was sold privately in 2017 to the Denzies herd after standing reserve champion and continental beef breeder champion at the Royal Highland Show.
Semen from Galaxy was retained for home use, with his first two sons from Blackford having sold for 11,000gns at Stirling in February 2018.
Record
As well as still holding the breed record price of 45,000gns for Bel Dhu Capercaillie, sold at Stirling Bull Sales in February 2013, the herd has also produced some cracking averages over the years to include 11,375 for three bulls sold in 2016.
Ms MacPherson says: The Simmental makes a very good commercial cow, producing both a good breeding heifer and a male calf that will finish just as quick as any other continental breed. Contrary to popular belief, they do not actually take a lot of feeding.
When we buy stock bulls, we do not look at the figures it is entirely on memory and visual as we are so lucky to be able to remember bloodlines back to the 1970s and 80s.
We like to select females on functionality and fleshing ability. They must be able to eat cheap fodder and convert that into milk. Depth is important in an animal and they must be correct on the legs, with a decent udder and feminine characteristics.
Two of the most recent stock bulls used at Blackford include Heathbrow Important, which Ms MacPherson purchased after putting him as male champion at the Royal Norfolk Show in 2019.
His first two calves won the inter-breed pairs aged 11-months-old at the Stars of the Future Calf Show in Stirling, one of which was the male champion Blackford Localhero, a bull which follows on from show winning bloodlines.
Both the dam and grandam lifted the senior championship at Stars of the Future in previous years.
In the spring of 2021, Glenturk Legend was purchased privately and his first calves on the ground look promising.
Ms MacPherson says: The two stock bulls have certainly complimented one another as Heathbrow Important put lift and length into the herd, while Glenturk Legend is more a thicker type so he has blended well with the Important heifers and brings the fashionable red genes too.
Commercial
The Simmental herd at Blackford is very much run on a commercial basis, with all cows brought inside at the end of September and the dry cows fed a basic diet of silage and minerals.
Females which are not retained in the pedigree herd are sold as commercial high health bulling heifers at 14 months of age at Dingwall and Highland Marts.
They regularly sell to returned buyers and have reached a top of 1,600 in the past.
Bulls unsuitable for breeding are kept entire and are sold to ABP when they reach their maximum killing weight at 12-months-old.
We do not sell heifers for pedigree use because we feel if they are not right for us, they should not be sold on to anyone else."
But it is not just Simmentals that have reaped the rewards for the family over the years as they used to run a pedigree Charolais herd which was dispersed in 2017 to John and James Graham, Mains of Burnbank, Stirling.
Established in 1999 with two heifers from Thrunton, Ms MacPherson and family enjoyed great success in the sale ring at Stirling, topping at 17,000gns for Blackford Gladiator in 2012 and 16,000gns for Blackford Dynamite in 2009, after standing overall champion.
Undoubtedly, the show wins and five-figure prices in the sale ring are the icing on the cake for the MacPherson family but both Ms MacPherson and her father share a sense of what is most important.
She says: The most satisfying part of what we do is when you have return buyers coming back for your bulls. We have had commercial boys come back four or five times and that is what makes it all the more rewarding.
I have been so lucky to travel around the country judging some spectacular cattle. The Royal Welsh will really be something special, despite the 974-mile round trip to get there.
