The night includes a three-course dinner and music by the Gary Coupland band. Tickets are priced £35 available from the office (angela@aberdeen-angus.co.uk)

Special accommodation rates are available by downloading the flyer from Field Farm Tours which can be found on the Society website on the Shows and Sales page (download section).

If you wish to place an advert, please contact Chrissie Lawrence Tel: 01233 749177 or email chrissie@mooandbaa.com

A total of just under 2.63 million calves were registered with BCMS between August 2010 and July 2011. This is about 20,000 head up on the previous year and over 65,000 more than 2008/9, bringing annual registrations almost back up to the level of 2007/8.

Of the calves registered in the past year, some 470,000 were pure-bred dairy heifers, leaving nearly 2.16 million calves available for the beef industry – a rise of more than 46,000 (2%) on the low of just over 2.11 million recorded in 2008/9.

Dairy-sired calf numbers fell back slightly on the previous year, a sharp fall in male registrations more than cancelling out a further annual rise in dairy heifers which may be related to the increasing use of sexed semen. Almost certainly reflecting the extent to which higher feed prices have affected pure-bred bull beef viability, the relative figures suggest more than 100,000 dairy bull calves may have been lost to the beef industry last year.

Limousins remain by far the most widely used beef sire, continuing to record more than double the registrations of the next most popular breed, however a continued decline in Charolais breeding (-3% on the year) coupled with a marked acceleration in the popularity of the Aberdeen-Angus (+6%) puts these breeds neck and neck in second place. Simmentals, British Blues and Herefords also experienced noticeable year-on-year registration growth.

To contact Chrissie email chrissie@mooandbaa.com or call 01233 749177. For more information on prices, artwork specifications and copy deadlines download the Review Media Pack

William McLaren congratulated Robbie on their success of achieving the Queen’s award which was well deserved.  We were extremely fortunate with the weather and amazed by the stunning views in the setting the Galloway’s have.

(picture courtesy of Ewan Pate, Dundee Courier)

Our members enjoyed looking round the cows and calves.  They were a uniform bunch with calves having great breed character and fleshing while making a good job of their calves which were mainly by Ballavitchel Blackbarclays Prem G446 who is a Halbeath Panther son.  Next we saw impressive in-calf yearling heifers mainly by Eastfield Fusilier D373, who has done a really good job at Cardona. We moved onto his show calves for the forthcoming shows and members admired his two show heifers Cardona Fiona L741 and Cardona Esmay L766. Our last stop was to see the bulls and the February team from Cardona really caught people’s eye with a line up of big strong bulls by Blelack Prince Conqueror G708 and Ballavitchal Blackbarclays Prem G446 which should go on to be one of the top teams in February.

Many thanks must go to Gilbert and Mary McNab for all their work they put in to getting the stock ready for us.

Clare McGowan & William McLaren

San Domingo two year old bull

This herd is using all the latest techniques to improve there herd with gene testing and rigorous testing for fertility and carcass qualities before a female enters the herd. This farm was very impressive and many top American genetics have been used with most coming out of Montana with bulls like Vermilion Dateline and SAV 004 Predominant 4438 being used. The cattle were run commercially and were a little bit smaller than yesterdays with again the red Angus being the stronger. In his show team we saw lots of good cattle a two year old grandson of Dateline being the pick of them. This bull would fit in very well in the U.K having plenty of size and fleshing ability.

Our last day saw us attend the National Expo Angus show in Tandil where more than 300 head of cattle were on show. The overall standard of cattle was good, maybe a frame score down than what we are used to, but never the less good cattle..

Grand champion female

Grand Champion Female was Tres Marias 8432 from the Guterirez family this tremendous 25 month old heifer sired by SAV Heavy Hitter was big enough for me and weighed 810kg. She carried great flesh and had a lovely udder. Reserve was Curaco 151 shown by  S A Curaco, another 25 month old heifer by Tres Marias Zorzal. This sire along with TC Freedom and Heavy Hitter in my opinion were breeding the best females on show.

Grand champion bull

The Bull show I think was not as strong as the females. They were very fit and maybe just a little bit deeper than we like back home, but the top bulls in the show weighed very well even though not as tall as at home. The Grand Champion bull was a 25 month old bull weighing 1055kg, Don Aveelino 113, exhibited by S A Signoagro. He was sired by SAV 004 Predominant 4438 and was a very complete bull carrying plenty of flesh and moved really well. Taking reserve was Charles F737 shown by Charles De Guerroro and was sired by SAV 004 Radar 6537.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Argentinian Angus Society for such a wonderful tour seeing lots of good cattle and learning about there country. These forums are great chance to meet fellow breeders from around the world in this Angus family of ours and I would encourage our members to think about the next one in New Zealand in 2013 as the programme they have will make it very memorable indeed.

We started with the Tres Marias herd from Horacio Gutierrez and his family. This herd maybe the most famous in Argentina as it has won Grand Champion at Palermo show a record 20 times and has been named Best Ranch of the Year a record 16 times. The herd sells 500 bulls and 100 females a year at an on farm sale with an average of $7000 for bulls and a staggering $17,000 for females. The herd also has a big embryo programme and sells 1500 embryo’s a year with a 1000 of these sold for export.

The field of donor cows, black and red, were in better condition than what we have seen, but these cows were of a good size with great character and bone, many of these cows would fit into herds in the UK. We then moved on and saw pens of 10-12 month old bulls and heifers and again the consistency of the cattle were greatly admired by all the delegates, then we moved on to maybe the best field of two year old heifers nursing their calves I have ever seen. These heifers had great depth of body, lovely udders and oozed style right through the lot and the Grand Champion of Palermo, Tres Marias 8334 by SAV Heavy Hitter, in my opinion would win in any country of the world with the rest in the field not far behind her.

Tres Marias 8334

Overall I would say that the Tres Marias cattle were very even and maybe only a little bit smaller than what we have in the UK with the best of them by SAV Heavy Hitter or a son of him.

After another great lunch we moved on to a new and upcoming herd Las Blancas owned by the President of the Argentine Angus Alberto Guil who has won Palermo eight times in the last 12 years. This herd consists of more than 15,000 cows and when we arrived we saw thousands of cattle in the two fields around his farm. To put it in to perspective these two fields would consist of about what is registered in our herd book in a year.

Las Blancas cattle

Again Black and Red Angus on this farm with the Reds in my opinion being the strongest we have seen on the tour so far. In one field we went to had 800 10-12 month old heifers in it and all peas in a pod. Again these two year old heifers with calves at foot were a delight to see. In Argentina, like many other countries in the world, cattle have to work hard and they would hope most of these heifers would wean a calf 50 % of her body weight. Overall the black Angus here were a bit smaller than we are used to seeing but there red Angus were up to size for UK breeders, but with the environment they are reared in I would imagine there mature height will be smaller than alot of breeders would like over here.

Ron McHattie rounded of the day with a vote of thanks to our hosts on behalf of all the delegates from around the world. It has been a great day and we move onto an even bigger herd of cattle tomorrow though run commercially and then onto the first Angus National Show.

We arrived on Saturday morning after a 13 hour flight from Heathrow to the Park Hyatt Hotel where the first part of the conference was held. After a welcoming reception that night we were given a tour of Buenos Aires on Sunday visiting the Pink Palace where the President stays and the grave of Eva Peron on Sunday afternoon before being treated to a Polo match at the famous Tortugas Country Club.

Monday was the Secretarial meeting where all Associations from around the world meet and discuss matters relating to Angus Cattle including Association reports, genetic defects and genomics. Also announced were the venues for the 2015 Secretarial meeting which will go to Mexico and the 2017 World Forum which will be coming to Britain after our presentation bid for it was accepted. Our breeders will now have a chance to show off our cattle and extent our hospitality to Angus breeders from all over the world.

Karen McLaren enjoying a "Tango"

Monday night we had a gala dinner where another Argentinean passion was on show, Tango, and yes Jennifer De Cogan and Karen Mclaren were really showing everybody how it was done.

On the Tuesday we left the city to go on visits, with our first stop being the famous Liniers market where 8000 cattle a day are sold for fat, totalling some 1.4 million a year all for domestic use, representing 15% of all total domestic use.

Liniers market, home to some 8000 cattle being sold a day

The market has 53 auctioneer companies and commission is between 3-6%. Cattle are weighed when they arrive and after they are sold and it is that weight that the price is set on. The ideal weight is 400kg live weight with a range of 300-500kg. There are 2000 registered buyers and 700 staff. We saw 11 month old steers weighting between 326 and 360 kg sell for $820 and $900. Most cattle are sold about a year old after only about two months of feed on corn.

Our first herd visit was to La Llovizna which is owned by Alfonso Bustillo who is chairman of the Argentinean Technical Committee. The herd was founded in 1935 and they have won 10 championships at Palermo Show. This herd has 1500 cows and are using only high performance bulls. The females on show have lots of Rito, Final Answer and Gridmaker blood in them. Birth weight is about 33kg with all bulls weighing more than 40kg at birth steered, as they are too big. These cattle run on grass all year and the heifers on show weighed about 450 kg at 14 months and where well fleshed with plenty of Angus character and maybe a frame score size smaller than UK cows. This herd were of medium size, but had plenty of length and lovely udders.

Heifers at La Llovizna

Our next visit was to La Pastoriza owned by the past president of the society Ricardo Orazi who runs 4500 cows. We saw a small sample of his herds of black and red Angus which are run together and saw plenty of good calves by a bull called Brigadier. His top cows were by Vermillion Dateline and TC Freedom. From my own personal opinion they just carried a little bit more frame for our market. We also saw a grandson of Fortune 2000 who at 13 months was the best bull we saw on the day.

Overall the cattle are run very commercially with only a small percentage receiving grain for either shows or sales with quite a difference between those that have had hard feed and those that haven’t.

Hospitality has been fantastic. Apparently the average yearly consumption of beef is 64kg per person, but after only a few days on tour I think it might be 64kg a week for us as the beef is very good and tender and there is lots of it!!

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