Bi-Weekly Update – Friday 2nd October 2020:
Aberdeen-Angus REVIEW 2021 – Booking Now Open!
Book your advertising space in the Aberdeen-Angus January 2021 REVIEW
Emails have now been sent out to the membership, clubs, trade advertisers and overseas societies – please check your junk boxes.
Online booking and downloadable forms are available now, please see below for links and DEADLINES!
You can now book your advertising space in the upcoming January 2021 edition of the Aberdeen-Angus REVIEW. As always, advertising space is available on a first come, first served basis. Deadline for booking adverts is 31st October 2020. Deadline for supplying your artwork is 20th November 2020
You can access the online booking forms by clicking here
If you’d prefer to print out and post/email the booking form, you can access it by clicking on the documents below –
Forms should be sent to Natalie Cormack using the details provided on the form.
Please submit your bookings as soon as you can to make the process run as smooth as possible.
Many thanks in advance!
Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society Face Masks
Wearing a face mask has become the new normal, so why not promote the breed and the brand and get yourself an Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society face mask?
We have two different designs to choose from – to find out more and place your order then please click here
We can’t wait to see your Aberdeen-Angus face mask selfies!
Upcoming Society Sales
Tuesday 13th October – Dungannon – Northern Ireland Autumn Sale of Pedigree Aberdeen-Angus.
Saturday 17th October – United Auctions Stirling Bull Sales, make sure you head along for your chance to benefit from all the Aberdeen-Angus sire has to offer.
There are 83 bulls for sale along with 6 females with calves at foot or in calf, along with two reductions sales from Eastfield and Weeton.
Click here to see the online catalogues.
Click here to see United Auction Stirling Bull Sales programme of events.
Skipton Sale of Aberdeen-Angus Females Entry Forms
Skipton sale of Aberdeen-Angus females including a reduction sale from the Airedale Herd (David Isherwood).
Sale date – Wednesday 11th November 2020
Closing date for entries – Wednesday 7th October 2020
Click here to access entry forms and health declaration forms
Northern Ireland Aberdeen-Angus Club Herds Competition Results
Despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Northern Ireland Club were able to hold their annual Herds Competition with the selection of a local judge, Mr John Blackburn, who gave generously of his time to travel the length and breadth of the province to visit competing herds. To view the results from the competition please click here
Solway Aberdeen-Angus Club Herd Competition Results
On Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th of September the Solway Aberdeen-Angus Club Herd Competition (socially distanced) took place. Chairman of the club – Tom Peters would like to thank James Borland for taking his time to judge the cattle. The weather was perfect and the club couldn’t of asked for a better weekend for it to take place. To view the results from the competition please click here
To all YDP Participants
We are looking for each of our YDP participants to take over the YDP Instagram page @aberdeenangusydp for a week over the summer and into the autumn months.
If you have an interesting week planned on the farm, or an exciting trip planned, or just your varied life on the farm then please contact us to book your week.
Our members are looking forward to varied, fun and fresh, posts, videos and photos from you.
Email: [email protected] to book your week.
The Aberdeen-Angus YDP are also having a virtual stock judging on their Facebook page, to get involved and find out more please click here.
James (Jim) Smith, from a well-known family of Scottish stockmen, has died in Canada.
Stock for Sale & Stock Wanted
If you would like to advertise stock for sale & stock wanted on our website then please send all the relevant information, contact information along with pictures/videos to Amy: [email protected]
Potential buyers can contact members directly.
(Stock for sale is for Aberdeen-Angus members to advertise only. We only publish adverts for pedigree Aberdeen-Angus stock).
Staff Update
The staff are all still working from home and continue as a team to deliver to the best of their ability to the membership. Due to the volume of emails that are being received at present please bear with us and we will reply as soon as we possibly can.
In order to work more efficiently in relation to the large volume of emails that are received, please be aware that the [email protected] email address is being wound down and is no longer monitored regularly. Should you email this address you will receive a standard reply to this effect asking you to email the correct person from the contact us page on the website, so that your enquiry can be dealt with as quickly as possible by the person responsible for the particular task. To make this process more streamlined, we are currently working to update the contact us page with a brief description of the main duties that each member of staff deal with to help you select the most appropriate person to contact.
By contacting the correct person by email in the first instance we hope that you will receive a quicker response to your enquiry and urge you to do this going forward so please embrace this change and let’s make it work and the whole business work smarter going forward.
To be able to contact the staff, please see email addresses below. By emailing us this is our most favoured method of communication
Barrie Turner, CEO (01738 448345) – [email protected]
Laura Stewart, Office Manager (01738 448343) – [email protected]
Angela Cumming, Accounts (01738 448344) – [email protected]
Caroline Ford, Registrations, Sales (01738 448341) – [email protected]
Fiona Flood, Registrations, New member enquiries (01738 448342) – [email protected]
Yvonne Buchanan, Registrations, Merchandise (01738 448340) – [email protected]
Amy Johnstone, Pedigree Cattle Services, Stock For Sale, Stock Wanted, Website & Social Media Updates (01738 448348) – [email protected]
Barbara Webster, Pedigree Cattle Services (01738 448346) – [email protected]
Helena Stewart, Aberdeen-Angus Accounts & Pedigree Cattle Services (01738 448347) – [email protected]
News & Notices from the CEO, Barrie Turner:
- We continue with the ever-changing restrictions to our activities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic with a backward step being taken by the Scottish Government in its phased return.
- We thought that we were just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with more than one member of staff coming into Pedigree house at a time.
- After so long in what is more or less isolation working from home it looks like we will be continuing to do that for the foreseeable future.
- The news just took the steam out of the sails of all in the office but only a temporary glitch and now all back at as near full throttle as we can be all things considered.
- We are entering the last month of our financial year so main focus of the staff is to get up to date with as much as we can before then and if you could settle any outstanding accounts before the end of October that would be really helpful.
- Sale fever is hitting the office again with Carlisle being on today, the bid that the marts have made to get back to live sales again is admirable and at least it’s a live sale.
- Catalogues are available online well done to Barbara, Caroline and Amy for pulling it all together its that bit more challenging when you are working remotely.
- There are strict protocols surrounding the sales and only buyers are allowed to attend to keep number to a minimum so that social distancing can be observed.
- Quote from me to be included in the UA publicity for the bull sales, Chief Executive of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society, said: “It is a great achievement that we are able to attend a live sale situation again. As a Society we expect all members to take their individual responsibility seriously by fully complying with the important safety measures put in place by United Auctions in order to complete a transaction. After all, the Bull sales are about selling cattle. Preserving the functionality of the market system as an important part of the agricultural supply chain by our compliance with the rules is a must in the current crisis.”
- There is no compromise on this, and the marts are a very important part of the agricultural economy so all instructions need to be adhered to, to preserve the continuation of the economic lifeline that they offer to many businesses.
- If someone had said to me 5 years ago that I was going to spend 20 hours per week talking to my laptop I would have suggested that they had their bumps felt! But that is how its working with Zoom and teams taking over everyone’s life.
- We continue to work our way through the intricacies of the new DNA module, but good progress is being made with less issues to resolve every week.
- A zoom meeting with Identigen this week to develop further some initiatives that they can perhaps help us with.
- We have sorted out the advertising for the sales this week with all sales being confirmed at the time of writing to be going ahead Carlisle, Dungannon and Stirling as well as work gone into the CCM Skipton sale publicity in November.
- Entry forms for females are online for the Skipton sale scheduled for the 11th November with David Isherwood’s Airedale herd providing a good base of entries to make it a draw for a good sale
- It has been some time in the making but Willie McLaren’s two centuries of change has now been finalised. Willie has generously donated any profits made to the Youth Development part of the Society.
- It’s a personal view from over 80 years’ experience in the breed through good times and bad and captures many of the highs and lows of the last 180 years.
- Work has started in earnest with the very different Review of 2020 place your adverts as soon as you can and this year we will have a review packed with case studies, technical articles and memories from days gone by.
- We had a mini Zoom meeting with the YDP team this week a catch up and the development of a few ideas just to round 2020 off with a competition or two details to follow.
- A member enquiry this week about the availability of Linear Scoring we did touch on the subject a while ago and there was some interest shown. If you are interested, please register that interest with Barbara in the Breedplan office and see if we can make a start.
- We are nearly over the line with our collaboration with Foyle meats, Tesco and AAQB Northern Ireland, dotting I’s and crossing T’s.
- We held a Zoom meeting with ICBF this week to push on with our streamlining of the information exchange and make sure that some of the projects that we are working on are coming to fruition.
- I took a very interesting call from Germany this week about a project to regenerate 20,000 ha of land that needs new life putting back into it. Wanting to use Aberdeen-Angus Cattle from the UK as a key part of that project. Watch this space!
- I had a meeting with next year’s incoming president this week and we discussed the next year or 18 months ideas for taking the breed forward with several possibilities tabled. Exciting times ahead!
- The staff have their chance to have their say at a Zoom HR committee meeting in the next reporting period.
- We hope to have developed a Webinar in the next week or two that hopefully can explain a little bit more about out hopes and aspirations for the DNA module and just shed a bit of light on the subject by using a different method of communication.
- “The Cud” will be available online in the next few days, owing to COVID-19 there will be no hard copy this year. A little later than hoped for various reasons so apologies for the delay.
- Public Holiday on Monday in Perth so the office will essentially be closed on Monday owing to this.
- Reviewing all the Bye-Laws to put to council for approval following a number of decisions at council that affect the document when approved these will be well publicised and I advise all members to have a look through them and have an understanding of them
- The Bye-Laws are an essential reference as there is barely anything that you would need to know that is not held it them.
- This is merely a fraction of what comes through the office and across my desk and so much more is dealt with on a day to day basis.
- I hope that you and your families all remain fit and well as it would seem that the increase in cases nationally is on the increase, until the next Bi-Weekly update.
News & Notices from the Office Manager, Laura Stewart:
- The 2021 Council nomination form will be mailed out to members in Scotland, England and Wales over the next few weeks, for vacancies in the constituencies of Scotland North, Scotland South, England & Wales North and England & Wales South. The Council members are nominated by the membership annually and are appointed to serve a three-year period. Where there is more than one candidate nominated in an area, there is a voting paper sent out and the membership can vote for their chosen candidate. We have several committees including Technical, Health, Youth Development, Breed Promotion, Finance and Executive. These committees are made up of some of the members of Council who have either an interest or expertise to take the business and the breed forward in the areas covered by each committee. If you are interested in being part of the Council, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with your local Council member and discuss in more detail how you can help the Society to progress, to find out who is your local council representative please click here. Please look out for the nomination paper in the post and these can be returned to me at Pedigree House.
News & Notices from the Accounts Department:
- Statements were posted out at the start of September. If you have any outstanding invoices, prompt payment would be very much appreciated as our financial year end is on the 30th October 2020. You can pay by cheque, internet banking or credit card.
- INTERNET PAYMENTSWhen making payment through the internet banking, please ensure that you quote your MEMBERSHIP NUMBER and SURNAME as a refence. This ensures that your payment is allocated to the correct account.RECEIVING SOCIETY INVOICES BY EMAILIn order to try and save on postage costs we would like to send our invoices by email. If you have not already done so, can you please provide us with your details? Please click on the link below –
News & Notices from the Registrations Department:
- New DNA Module Installed on Our Database: An email went out last week regarding our new DNA module which has been installed on our database. Please check your junk box for the email. (COPY OF EMAIL BELOW):
Dear Breeder, We have a new DNA module installed on our database. This means that you will quite often receive an acknowledgement email regarding DNA testing. The Society is currently testing every male calf – registered, at no cost to the breeder. We are also DNA testing any females coming into the herd when you register her first calf at no cost to the breeder.
- The email is simply an acknowledgment to let you know that we have actioned this testing and no further action is required on your part. This testing is being done on the new SNPS testing platform. Should you have a stock bull which has a MICROSATELITE profile only, it would be advantageous to have him re-tested on the new SNPS platform to enable sire verification.
- As a reminder to all members engaging in embryo imports and exports the rules have changed and you need Zootechnical Certificates from the Society of Origin. There are no exceptions to this if we want to maintain our trade with the EU post Brexit on 31/12/2020.
News & Notices from Pedigree Cattle Services:
- With bull sale season just around the corner please remember to check the size of your bulls scrotum. Click here to see a short video from Breedplan on recording scrotal circumference measurements.
From us all at the Society have a great weekend and stay safe!
