Profile: William McLaren jnr

William out walking one of the Netherton bulls

The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society has been fortunate in having one of its most progressive young breeders as president over the past year.

Thirty eight year old William McLaren is one of the youngest ever incumbents of this high office and, as the fourth generation of the McLaren family who have been stalwarts of the Aberdeen-Angus breed for 86 years with their successful Netherton herd, he follows in the footsteps of his father, Willie, who has served two terms as president.

But while William looks back with justifiable pride on his family’s long association with the breed, he is more concerned with the future and ensuring that Council make decisions which will take the breed forward to even greater heights.

He points to the introduction of Breedplan performance recording, DNA testing to improve the accuracy of selecting breeding stock, improved health declarations, the appointment of a brand development manager and the forthcoming adoption of genomics to expand DNA evaluation, as examples of the leading role the Society is playing in developing the market for Aberdeen-Angus.

“The Society is leading the field with these developments, all of which will benefit the breed in the long-term,” William points out. “Buyers are increasingly looking for figures and health assurances and the measures Council have introduced can only enhance confidence in the breed among both pedigree and commercial breeders and create new market opportunities for Aberdeen-Angus cattle.”

Modern information technology is also being utilised to keep members, customers and the wider industry informed of developments in the breed and the Society’s new web site, which has been Chrissie Lawrence’s priority in her first year as brand development manager, is a welcome innovation and will be the key provider of information in the future. Members particularly welcome the instant news service available from the major shows with show results hitting the web site literarily as they happen.

The Youth Development Programme has also taken a huge leap forward in the past year, under new co-ordinator, Gayle Bersey, and William sees this as major development which augurs well for the future of the breed by getting youngsters involving in showing and learning about Aberdeen-Angus cattle from an early age.

“More than 100 youngsters have taken part in the programme this year and the enthusiasm being shown by youngsters of all ages at the various training days and competitions has been exceptional,” says William. “We are grateful to all the volunteers who give up so much time to help the youngsters and help Gayle with the various training programmes.”

He adds: “The foundations have been laid and we have exciting plans for a youth development week-end to bring all the youngsters together for a week-end of training, stock handling and fun.”

It has been a busy year for William who has travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles, from Cornwall to the North of Scotland, and the north to the south of Ireland, to meet breeders, speak at club meetings and judge at various shows, including the Royal Cornwall, All-Ireland show at Clogher Valley and Bristol bull sale.

“I have enjoyed my year as president and have been made very welcome everywhere I have visited,” he says. “The breed is in good heart and breeders are generally happy with how things are going. But we cannot rest on our laurels and must keep moving forward to keep the breed ahead.”

The highlight of the year was, of course, the visit which William and his wife, Karen, made to Canada to attend the World Angus Forum in Calgary, Alberta. William represented the Society, along with the chief executive, Ron McHattie, at the meeting of the World Angus Secretariat, and with 35 other UK breeders, took part in a five day tour of herds of all the leading herds in the Calgary area and also the official pre-Forum tour in the Rockies.

William with his wife Karen

“We were most hospitably received everywhere we went and we are grateful to all the breeders who showed us their cattle and entertained us so well,” he says.

“We saw some tremendous cattle and it is clear that the breed is going from strength to strength in Canada.”

William was particularly impressed that most herds calve down at two years of age and operate a rigorous culling policy to weed out cows which are not performing, with particular reference to feet, udders and fertility.

“The herds we saw don’t carry passengers,” he says. “Breeders have an opportunity in the UK at the moment, with the high price of cull cows, to get rid of cows which are not performing and bring higher performing heifers into the herd.”

There are lessons to be learned from Canada, he adds, that bigger, fatter cows, who are looking after themselves rather than their calves, are not always the best breeders.

A group of young Netherton bulls

“Some breeders will argue that calving at two years of age will stunt growth but at Netherton we have found that by the time cows are five years of age, there isn’t much difference in size although maybe they won’t be as fat,” he says. “They will still have the same genetics in them whether they calve at two or three.”

However, William urges caution in following the North American trend to downsize their cattle.

“It may suit their market but we must maintain good growth rates in our cattle in the UK, bearing in mind we have to compete with the Continental breeds, although we musn’t sacrifice easy fleshing and easy calving,” he says. “I don’t think we should go any bigger but, equally, we must avoid going too small. For the commercial producer, it is the weight on the hook which pays.”

The Netherton herd was the first Aberdeen-Angus herd to adopt weight recording over 50 years ago and the herd has always had a reputation for producing well-grown cattle.

The outstanding success of the herd is the stuff of legends with five Perth bull sale championships and one female championship (but no fewer than 13 reserve female championships!) to its credit and a remarkable series of Netherton Matron’s sales over the past 20 years which have seen a succession of record prices, culminating in the current record of 30,000gns paid for Netherton Missie A114.

Perhaps the sires which have made the greatest impact, both on the herd and the breed in general, have been TLA Northern Samurai, a bull which bred very much true to type, and Darlene Cruz 11F, who left tremendous muscling in his progeny.

With an extensive embryo programme producing plenty of young females, the herd has sold all cows over five or six years of age at the Matron’s sales and all females, except 10 yearling heifers, were sold at a memorable production sale five years ago. Today, the herd runs to 25 pedigree cows and 30 commercial recipient cows.

Embryos imported from New Zealand, from cows selected by William during a two-week tour in 1999, have made a big impact on the breed. The UK semen rights were also obtained for the New Zealand national show champion, the $45,000 Ranui Impact, who has been widely used. His full brother, Netherton Sovereign A072, sired Netherton Figo C244, supreme champion at Perth in February, 2005, when sold for the top price of 30,000gns to Kincardine Castle and Coul.

The Netherton herd was prominent in the showring for many years, with a string of championship successes at the Royal Highland and Royal Shows and a frequent winner of the Walkers Shortbread Show Herd of the Year award.

Showing was discontinued in 2002 but the herd has returned to the showring over the past year to whet the appetite of son, Alasdair, and daughter, Seonaid, and step-daughter, Rachel, all of whom are involved in the youth development programme.

The McLaren family has made an immense contribution to the Aberdeen-Angus breed over many years. In the best traditions of the family, William’s clear thinking and progressive approach has steered the breed in the right direction during his year as president.