QUALITY BREEDING FEMALE FAMILIES UNDERPIN PROLIFIC AUCHORACHAN SIMMENTALS

by Nicky Moreton | Jun 14, 2024 | 2024 News, 2024, 2024 Scottish News

Here we feature Michael Durno, who along with his wife Morag, and father Leslie, run the noted pedigree and commercial Auchorachan Simmental herd at Glenlivet, Ballindalloch, Banffshire.

Michael Durno with some of the spring calving herd

Whilst the type of cattle have changed over time to meet market demands, the basis of the cattle system at Auchorachan Farm in Glenlivet, has remained the same for 40 years – putting Simmental cross cows to Charolais and Simmental bulls, to produce quality store calves to sell through the market at a year old. It’s a system that works and it’s one that the Durno family do very well.

Michael Durno is now the third generation of his family to farm at Auchorachan, a 2800-acre Crown Estate farm, which his grandfather Duncan first took on the tenancy of in 1953. There, with his wife Morag, he runs 160 cows, alongside his father Leslie, who mainly manages the sheep flock of 600 Perth-type Blackfaces. Full time employee Peter Tinney is also part of the team.

“We have 450 acres of grass here at Auchorachan and the rest is heathery hill which the Blackies graze. We breed 450 of them pure and the other 150 go to Texel tups, with all the lambs fattened and sold through Woodhead. We manage to grow 30 acres of barley each year, which is always a challenge – the farm is very steep and we have long, harsh winters and a short growing season,” explains Michael.

On the cattle side, the herd comprises 75 pedigree Simmentals, small herds of pedigree Charolais, Aberdeen-Angus and Salers, and 65 commercial suckler cows (mainly Simmental crosses).

Michael says: “We’ve used Simmental bulls for breeding replacement females for as far as I can remember. We had a great old bull called Cloford Kernel, which bred really well – we had great females off him. That’s probably what got us hooked on the Simmentals.”

It wasn’t until 2002 that the Auchorachan pedigree herd was established though, with the purchase of four heifers from the Ravensworth dispersal.
“We initially bought those heifers for the commercial herd, but we were so pleased with them that we decided to keep them pedigree. So, I registered with the Society at that point and the herd was built from there,” explains Michael.

Other early purchases included two from Hector McCaskill’s Woodhall herd, one from Delfur and another, Greenlea Hilly, from a local on-farm dispersal. The five main breeding families in the herd today, stem from these original purchases, with the ‘Hilly’ family being the most numerous. The Ravensworth Madie family has probably been the most successful at breeding bulls, such as Wizard, Winger, AC/DC, Hercules and Landmark.

“Those families are very milky lines, so we were lucky with the start that we got. The four Ravensworth heifers were bought and delivered home for £520 per head – a bargain now that we know how they’ve bred,” says Michael.

“A main focus for us has been breeding cattle that are good on their legs. Our cows normally average 820kg, which is not huge for a pedigree cow, but we don’t want them any bigger than that on our ground, which sits at 1000ft. We aim for softer fleshed females that will carry flesh at grass with no extra feeding.

“The female classification scheme has been a great addition to the Simmental Society and I think it is more relevant than any other figures in the breed. We now have 54 VG or Excellent cows within our herd. I think it gives buyers confidence that the bulls they are buying are out of good, structurally correct, milky female lines,” says Michael. “Also, EBVs are not that well suited to beef herds in the UK in my opinion, as we have so many different herd sizes and so many totally different rearing systems. For example, in my herd, it suits our system to bull any poorer females with the Charolais bull, to produce an excellent commercial animal, but this takes out the bottom end of the contemporary group of calves being recorded and so disadvantaging the top end calves in their EBVs,” he adds.

Bulls have been carefully selected over the years to compliment the female lines at Auchorachan. Early on, Saltire Talent, bought from Perth, and the Irish-bred Clonagh Tiger Gallant, ran in tandem with each other. Michael says the shape and carcase of Tiger, combined with the length and height of Talent, proved a winning combination. The Saltire Talent son, Auchorachan Wizard, was placed overall champion at Stirling in 2010 and sold for 20,000gns, while Auchorachan Winger, by Clonagh Tiger Gallant, made 10,000gns the same day.

Another Irish purchase, Rawbawn Caesar King, bred particularly good daughters, and then Team Fergus, produced both sons and daughters of note. He was a show winner himself, standing reserve male at the Royal Highland in 2015.

Auchorachan Hercules

Currently, the home-bred bull Auchorachan Hercules is ticking all the boxes. He is a son of Auchorachan AC/DC, another by Saltire Talent, which sold for 12,000gns at Stirling in 2011. Michael had taken semen off the bull prior to his sale, which is how the story of Hercules starts: “I kept AC/DC semen for my own use, but David Hazelton of the Ranfurly herd was keen to use him, so he did so on the condition that I got a fertilised embryo back, out of his show cow, South Park King Kong Weikel 2nd.”

The results of that transaction was Hercules, which Michael kept to use himself. That proved a wise decision, as Hercules sons averaged £10,500 in 2021, selling to a top of 18,000gns for Auchorachan Landmark.

One of Michael’s favourites, Auchorachan Holly, mother of the 18,000gns Auchorachan Landmark with his full sister

Michael has recently been dabbling with polled genetics. Auroch Hudson, a heterozygous polled bull from Ireland, has been used in conjunction with Hercules, and this year, the homozygous polled Jaegergard Quebec, has been imported from Denmark.

“Both of these bulls boast different bloodlines and the fact that they are polled and also look the part, is quite exciting. I’ve been out to Denmark and have seen that bull’s sire, dam and granny, a top show cow, so I know it has quality breeding behind it,” he says.

Another exciting recent purchase is Greencap Kane, bought for 9000gns in 2020 – which Michael describes as being ‘typical’ of the type of bull he likes. “He is long, correct on his legs, well-muscled, with character too. His first calves are on the ground now and looking very promising.

Auchorachan Emily EX94 with her AC/DC bull calf Malcolm

“With both the pedigree and commercial herd, it’s always worth investing in a good quality bull. My Grandfather always used to say that when buying a bull, you should expect to pay the price of 10 of your best bullocks – and I think that should still be the case.”

While Michael takes a great interest in the pedigree breeding lines, in practise, the pedigree cattle are run very much commercially, along with the entire herd. The bulk of the cows (110) calve in the autumn and the rest from January through to May.

“We have a good array of sheds here on the farm, but we’re at capacity with the number of cattle we have. Outwintering is not an option here as the winters are long and unforgiving. Having the cows in at calving time works well for keeping an eye on them, but luckily we have very few calving problems that require assistance.”

Autumn calves are creep fed through the winter and go out to grass with their dams in May, where they get no further feeding before being weaned in July and they are then sold in September through Thainstone Mart. Last September, the batch of Simmental, Charolais and Salers cross 12-month-old bullocks, averaged £1470 at 477kg, while Charolais and Simmental twin heifers sold to average £1355, weighing 450kg at 12-months.

The calves born in the spring, meanwhile, are introduced to creep feeding from August that year. For the past few years, the cross-bred spring calves that are not being kept as replacements, have all been sold in November to local finisher and Simmental enthusiast Danny Leslie, Redhill, Elgin, who is particularly keen on the high-health status of the herd and the fact they’re Level 1 Johne’s. It’s an arrangement that works well for both – as it means they don’t take up valuable shed space through the winter at Auchorachan.

10 – 12 month old steers are sold in September through ANM Thainstone

Within the pedigree herd, demand for Auchorachan Simmental bulls is always strong, between private sales and those through Stirling and Thainstone Marts. Until recently, the best of the females have mainly been kept for breeding, but with numbers at capacity, Michael is now able to offer select heifers for sale. In December last year, the Auchorachan herd supported the newly established Next Generation Sale of Simmental Females & Weaned Calves at Carlisle and at which they sold Auchorachan Liqueur Madie, a grand daughter of the aforementioned Ravensworth Madie, for 5000gns to Ryan Morgan in Orkney.

“I think the breed has improved a great deal in recent years. There used to be two distinct types of Simmentals – bigger, plainer ones and smaller, thicker ones. Now, they have met somewhere in the middle, which is a good place to be.

“It is a really versatile breed, in that a Simmental-sired female will breed a very marketable calf off any breed or sire. Likewise, a Simmental bull onto any breed of cow can leave great replacement females and also very efficient and profitable males, as shown by the recently published data on days to slaughter statistics,” adds Michael.

SIMMENTAL – THE ‘TESLA’ OF UPLAND SUCKLER BEEF PRODUCTION AT AIKENGALL!

by Rachel Foley | Jun 3, 2024 | 2024, 2024 Scottish News, 2024 News

We meet with James Hamilton, this year’s NSA ScotSheep host on Wednesday 5^th June, based at Aikengall located on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills, Innerwick, Dunbar and where Simmental has a major complementary role to play with the sheep enterprise.

Succession and the freedom to be your own man have always been at the forefront and long-term planning for the Hamilton family – James, Charles and Harry alongside their late father, John.  Harry took on the tenancy of Nunraw in 2010, the opportunity to purchase Barney Mains where Charles is now based came in late 2021, while James remains at Aikengall.  Combined, the three units carry 900 spring calving Simmental cross suckler cows and accompanying finishing unit together with 1,400 Blackface ewes including 700 pure ewes, 700 ewes bred to the Bluefaced Leicester and 1,400 Scotch Mules bred to Texel rams for finished lamb production.

James explains: “While we are each running our own farms, the arrangement provides that critical mass and we’re linked: the extra land has enabled us to expand the suckler herd, Barney Mains has allowed us to be self-sufficient in grain and straw and we’ve been able to develop a complete stratified sheep enterprise.
“We have always tried to build a system that can sustain itself and turn in a profit without support payments, and we are currently as close to that as we have ever been.”
He continues: “After moving from Dykefoot and South Cobbinshaw in Lanarkshire to Aikengall back in 1998, we converted to organic production which was very profitable in the early days due to good organic conversion schemes and premiums on stock of up to £1/kg.
“Organic was in fact the precursor to the current regenerative movement; it was simply a more unquantified ‘caveman’ approach. Without the ability to turn to a bag or a can to solve your problems, we learnt a great deal. It was about building fertility for crops such as kale or barley using good clover-based swards that in turn boosted feed values, clean grazings to reduce worm burdens and closed herds to prevent introducing disease – the list goes on.

“Whilst we took the decision in 2014 to return to conventional production, the lessons we learned haven’t been lost. We like to think we currently farm an intensive system on an extensive basis – we’re exploiting our resources’ potential with minimal input however we like to pay as much attention to detail as we can.

“We are finding what’s good for farm profitability is also good for the environment and carbon efficiency. When we have a good grazing sward with clovers and herbs the soil health and ability to hold pH and fertility is greatly enhanced. Recent carbon tests on upland silage fields have shown soil carbon levels of 15-18%, far greater than the assumed 2-3%. This is a great story to tell and a torpedo to the Bismarck of negative press the livestock industry sustains,” says James.

“Labour is a big issue – we each mange our units singlehanded alongside our wives – Emma, Jane and Rebecca. At Aikengall, I have part time help feeding up along with seasonal help from students at calving and lambing, consequently we need an easy care suckler, one that will look after herself, and Simmental has proved herself to us for nearly three decades.”

“Simmental has got to be the Tesla of upland suckler beef production,” says James Hamilton. “She is a great dual-purpose cow – easy calving, maternal and milky, and is able to extensively rear a quality calf each year which goes on to easily flesh. Furthermore, she is performing off heather hill remaining in BCS 3.5 totally off forage and without any extra cost through to the end of December – weather permitting, which can subsequently shorten the winter period to just four months of the year.”  In fact, Simmental has been the backbone of the family’s suckler finishing enterprise for almost 30 years and is set to continue that role well into the foreseeable future. “While we inherited Simmental when we bought Aikengall in 1998, since then we’ve worked away introducing native breeds to reduce cow size to an average 650kg mature weight and establish a fleshier, more efficient suckler cow and one that will hold her condition during winter. Today’s herd comprises 80% Simmental genetics.

“While we’ve some cows lasting for 10 years, one of objectives is to keep the herd productive and young averaging six crops. We semen test all the bulls before they are turned out, they run with the heifers for four weeks and the cows up to six weeks, and then we scan three weeks after they’re removed in mid-September and anything that’s empty is culled.”  Replacement heifers are carefully selected: “We’re annually introducing 200 head and calve them at two years – we pelvic score and weigh to make sure they’re sufficiently well grown reaching 400kg and fit to run with the bull – either Angus or Lincoln Red. We run them in two groups of 100 head, each with three or four bulls for four weeks as an insurance policy.

“After that first cross, it’s Simmental all the way and we keep these bulls in for two cycles, and again we cull all of the empties,” says James. “Our ruthless culling policy has resulted in herd fertility dramatically increasing and most cows getting in calf in the first turn.”

The Hamiltons run a string of 25 Simmental bulls; they annually refresh with a handful purchased in Stirling and occasionally top up with one or two bought privately. “We work each one as long as he’s fit, usually for up to five seasons. We do pay attention to selecting for calving ease, eye muscle and backfat EBVs however we don’t rely on them. We like a slightly smaller and ‘musclier’ type of bull, since we believe they and their progeny will hold flesh easier.  “We also like those with dark red coats – we believe they absorb more sunlight which in turn helps to keep more flesh on the cattle.”

With some 900 head of cows to calve over the three farms within a space of six weeks then ease of calving is vitally important. “We keep an eye on them and have cameras, however very little intervention is required; the calves are lively and able to take care of themselves in the most part.

“Cows and calves are turned out on to a flush of spring grass and thrive on the upland pastures and hill until nine months weaning at +300kg target weight. Three to four weeks prior to weaning we introduce creep – wheat distillers and barley to help with the transition process. The calves are then built up onto a finishing diet of homegrown crimped cereals, silage, a bit of straw and bought in protein, with bespoke minerals included,” he explains. “All calves are weighed at housing and at two-month intervals to ensure they keep on track.

“The cattle tend to finish in a tight pattern which mirrors calving, at 17 to 20 months of age – steers at an average 390kg and heifers 340kg to 350kg and all consistently grading within the U, R 3 and 4L spec. They’re very well sought after and keenly bid for by Highland Meats, AK Stoddart and Macduff beef,” he says adding: “It is a pleasure to work with the Simmental breed to achieve the type and temperament of cow and finishing beast in the farming system we are striving to achieve.”

Suckler herd performance
24 months age at first calving
95% heifer scan
96% cow scan
80% calving within the first two cycles
90% reared
6 calf crops
17 – 20-month finishing; steers ave 390kg, heifers ave 340kg; U, R 4L

Factfiles
Aikengall, Dunbar, East Lothian

1,900 acres, upland unit, 900’ – 1,200’
450 spring calving Simmental cross breeding females
600 head finishing unit
1,400 Blackface ewes

Thurston Mains
400 acres arable/good grazing lowland next door to Aikengall

Nunraw, Garvald
1,200 acres, tenanted unit
350 spring calving Simmental cross breeding females
1,400 Scotch Mule ewes

Barney Mains, Haddington
450 acres arable
140 acres rough grazing, plus 80 acres grazing next door farm
100 suckler cows

Coreshope, Heriot
2,000 acres upland unit contract farmed with the Walgate family
Running all bulling heifers and ewe hoggs