This week and next we would normally be preparing for setting off to the Great Yorkshire Show which we enjoy attending each year, instead this year the show has prepared a Virtual Great Yorkshire Show for you all to enjoy for FREE as they are determined that the show must go on! Keep your eyes peeled on the GYS website and Facebook page for exciting information to come.
As the staff are all still working from home, they continue as a team to deliver to the best of their ability to the membership. We hope that some sort of normality can return to our activities before too long! Here’s a round up of what has been happening in the Society over the last 14 days…
News Roundup –
VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REF SOCIETY DNA TESTING:
Further to the recent announcements of the change to the destination of DNA samples from the 1st June 2020, whereby the samples taken should be sent to PEDIGREE HOUSE and marked “DNA SAMPLES” we need to let you know about the changes that we are bringing about, and why.
Please click on the document below to read the full announcement:
VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REF SOCIETY DNA TESTING.
Days to Calving:
Now that the breeding season is upon us and bulls have recently gone out/going out, to add more accuracy to the days to calving EBVs and include a measure of cow fertility in Breedplan evaluations, The Society would like to encourage breeders to record whole-herd reproductive performance by using the approved ‘Days to Calving’ Excel spreadsheet to submit data to Breedplan.
The ‘Days to Calving’ EBV is also a major component of the new Maternal index under development. Identifying the most fertile bloodlines will help breeders in selecting the most productive and hence most profitable cows.
Please note: Information will be accepted from previous years’ data. Please ensure absolute accuracy in your submissions. Do not ‘guestimate’ information or use incomplete data.
Below are the days to calving template to give you an example on how it works and also your own template for submitting:
A-A Template for Submitting Service Information
Understanding Days to Calving EBVs
PRE-ORDER HERD BOOK VOL 144:
Should you wish to buy Volume 144 of the Herd Book, then please complete the form and return ASAP.
You can either post or email this to Angela – email: [email protected]
To access your Pre-order Herd Book form then please click on the link below:
Farm Placement Wanted – Andrew Bissett:
“I am a Harper Adams University student currently looking for a year long placement starting from August or September 2020. I would preferably want to work with cattle, from beef production to calf rearing and I would also like to learn about the skills involved around showing cattle. I would be happy to work with sheep and arable alongside cattle as well. I have experience with cattle as I come from a home farm with a beef suckler Aberdeen-Angus Herd.
The placement requires that I have to work 50 miles from my home farm which is located around Newbury, Reading area in West Berkshire Due to coronavirus my theory and therefore practical driving exam has been postponed and I am pushing for an emergency test, and will have the driving licence as soon as possible. I have a tractor competence certificate as well as an animal transport certificate. I have experience with tractors and telehandlers but still need practice, and I’m willing to work hard and learn in order to fulfil a role in a team. If anyone has any work for the year or knows anyone that would have, please contact me at [email protected]. Thank you, Andrew Bissett”
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this advert are those of the authors and not the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society.
FG Summer Shows Competition launches:
With this year’s summer show season cancelled due to Covid-19 the Farmers Guardian have launched a brand new photographic competition for you to showcase your stock, and also be in with a chance of winning a £100 shopping voucher.
There will undoubtedly be a sense of disappointment about the cancellation of summer shows.
Perhaps you were looking forward to taking a seasoned show winner out onto the showing circuit for another year? You may have earmarked a potential show winner to take to a show this year, or maybe you are a young handler looking forward to showing a new calf? If this is the case, why not enter the FG Summer Shows Competition 2020.
The FG are inviting you to send in your own pictures of the stock you would have been taking to a show, or shows, this summer.
This is your chance to showcase your stock to the readership of FG.
The competition will be split into four categories: dairy cattle; beef cattle; sheep; and pigs.
A panel of judges will pick their favourites in each section, then an overall winner will be chosen.
The category winners and overall winning pictures will be printed in FG and will appear on FGinsight.com.
All photos received will be uploaded onto a gallery on our Facebook Shows and Sales page, which has more than 15,000 followers.
To find out more and how to enter please click here
Free advertising on FG Buy & Sell:
Farmers Guardian’s newest marketplace FGBuyandSell.com is the perfect place to advertise stock to a dedicated audience. In these times of uncertainty, the Farmers Guardian understand how important it is for trade to continue. You can now pre-list your lots from the society sales FREE OF CHARGE on FGBuyandSell.com.
Search from over 1500 weekly listings, from breeding cattle, used machinery and property.
Here’s 5 great reasons to use www.fgbuyandsell.com
1. It is straightforward to post something on FGBuyandSell. With only a few clicks, your items can be online and ready for buyers to find!
2. We are LAA approved, that means when you buy from an auctioneer through FGBuyandSell you’re protected by the LAA’s conditions of sale.
3. Our packages make it even easier to reach a wide audience. Choose from Online Only, Basic Package and Standard Packages.
• Online Only – Free 30-day online listing with up to 100 words and 2 pictures
• Basic Listing – This package allows you to reach an even wider audience by appearing in a 3×1 box in Farmers Guardian printed magazine for 7 days and 30-days online.
• Standard Listing – Maximise the reach of your advert by appearing in a 3×2 box in Farmers Guardian printed magazine for 7 days and 30-days online.
4. Video Classifieds – Want to show the buyer a more in-depth look at the item you are selling? Add a Youtube video to your ad.
5. As a member of The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society, we’re giving you £5 off your next paid for advert on www.fgbuyandsell.com. Simply add LAUNCH5 at checkout to claim your discount.
If you need any further information or help getting your first advert uploaded, please get in touch with Katie Robinson at Farmers Guardian on 01772 799500.
STOCK FOR SALE & STOCK WANTED:
With our spring society sales being affected by outbreak of COVID-19, we would like to remind members of our stock for sale & stock wanted sections on our website.
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).
Breedplan have announced that they have revamped their website and made it more user friendly. If you would like more information on Breedplan and EBV’s check out their new website by clicking here
Office Closure & Staff Contact Information:
The office is now closed till further notice; we will keep all the membership up to date as much as we can with this situation. All members of staff are now set up and working from home.
The staff in Pedigree House are all committed to making this work as well as we can and also committed to thinking about everything that we do to streamline the transfer of information to the membership which we will keep you updated on as it happens.
In the current circumstances E-mail is by far our favoured method of communication and systems of electronic transfer of information to you will also be the most favoured route so please embrace this change and let’s make it work and the whole business work smarter going forward.
We are committed to delivering the best level of service that we can to you given the current circumstances that prevail; there are bound to be occasions where for reasons beyond our control we cannot. Please bear with us in our quest to take very seriously the Government’s instructions to “Stay Home” and we hope that everyone stays as safe and well as possible until we get through these difficult and trying times.
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]
Caroline Ford, Registrations, Sales (01738 448341) – [email protected]
Fiona Flood, Registrations, New member enquires (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 still are monitoring the COVID-19 restrictions very closely and a planned return to the office for the CEO would be 13th July as it stands now.
This will hopefully be to put the necessary shielding and PPE in place for when the staff can come back into the office which at this point I cannot see until the end of July at the earliest.
We are however all working remotely and carrying on with the business as normal.
We are being inundated with requests for Zootechnical Certificates for embryo exports to the EU these are a manual process to complete and very time consuming and are adding considerably to the administrative burden in registrations.
The process of the change to the DNA testing procedures is nearly over the line now and the addition of the DNA module to our capabilities will help considerably with requests for DNA profiles for animals if we are holding them in house.
We are also embarking on evaluating an update to the registrations system that ABRI have implemented around the world for various breed societies, this is perhaps long overdue and will hopefully be a simplification of the online registration system for you.
The change in these processes has meant that the registrations team have been taken away from the processing of intimations at the busiest time of the year for periods of time which has led to a bigger backlog than we would like.
The process of the additional DNA checking that we are now doing has also added time required to process each registration which adds up over the number of registrations that we do annually to a lot of extra administration that is required.
We are working as quickly and efficiently as we can to get caught up with the spring flush and we will get there please be patient if you have to wait a bit longer for your pedigree certificates to arrive.
The team are also getting together on a weekly basis on Zoom to just catch up with each other and share any problems which is working well. On last week’s 30 min call the two registrations team in the meeting received seven calls all having to be returned.
There are many answers to issues with the registration process available on the website please refer to the instructions if you can prior to calling although we are happy to help as always.
Now that the COVID-19 priority for governments is lowering a bit more focus on the Brexit deal or no deal is taking place and the feeling is that agriculture is not that high on the priority list so close monitoring of activity that would affect what we do is in progress. Angus Stovold our Junior Vice President is involved with the process so we can keep a close eye on any parts of that will affect the Society in any way for better or worse!
Helena continues to support Angela on the finances taking card payments and paying invoices, lodging cheques, and paying invoices. You can pay your invoices by card by contacting Helena directly on 01738 448347
You will have noticed that invoices now carry the payment terms formalised by council in March this year please pay your invoices within terms which are 30 days from the end on month of invoice.
Another change to the invoice query email address which is no longer [email protected] but is now [email protected]
We are constantly in contact with the markets regarding the sales in Autumn which at this point will be going ahead in some way but it is unlikely to be in the full normal format as it stands at the moment.
PCS have done the last entries and the final run for the Charolais Cattle society who have taken their performance recording in house from the end of June 2020.
We have subscribed to Mailchimp, an email system that allows us to communicate with block emails with information to you. Just keep checking your Junk mail for communications from the Society.
A 24 hour period of trepidation this week as we transferred our frozen DNA sample archive from Identigen to Weatherby’s in Ireland, all went well and arrived safely thanks to PDQ frozen Couriers who I can recommend should you need a frozen or chilled delivery.
Many thanks to the parties at both ends for preparing, dispatching and receiving the cargo as if it had been lost the hassle factor for all would have been huge! The CEO may have had to spend a couple of weeks scuba diving in the Irish sea.
We have sorted out the programme for the Summer National venues and thanks to the show societies, Royal Norfolk for 2021, Turriff 2022 and Border Union for 2023 as it stands at this point.
News this week from the South West Aberdeen-Angus Club that Agri Fest South West will be taking place in November as a glimmer of hope for the shows to start resuming.
Barbara Webster, myself, and the team from the Castle of May had an interesting Teams meeting with Sainsbury on the Kinermony project, lots of data shared and the power of data cannot be underestimated!
Export markets for breeding stock seem to be picking up and some strong demand from France with a French wholesaler contacting this week looking to import Aberdeen-Angus beef.
We held a YDP Zoom meeting this week with all the regional coordinators in attendance to establish some ways to rescue at least something all being well in 2020 with some great ideas coming forward that we could implement before the end of 2020.
Our new targeted approach with the social media channels is paying dividends and the first report has gone to Breed Promotions as a measure of the success of our engagement with the respective markets that we are targeting.
Sad news this week that the Animal Health trust is no longer doing bovine DNA testing, many thanks to Emma from AHT for sorting out retrieval of the stored samples and also for collating some 3700 microsatellite test results into a useable format for us and Council member Chris Wilkinson doing the needful and collecting them for us.
To promote Aberdeen-Angus in Wales John James has sorted out sponsorship in the three main calf markets for the highest priced Aberdeen-Angus sired Calf to receive a rosette and some prize money for the next ten weeks as part of the special breed promotion budget allocated to Wales to redress the imbalance of Aberdeen-Angus cattle population compared to other breeds which is lower.
The next two weeks sees the DNA project come to fruition which we have done all we can to ensure a seamless transition but with a project of this magnitude some glitches are inevitable.
Executive Committee Zoom Meeting today which I will report on next time and we strive to keep the wheels of the Society rolling along as effectively as we possibly can in our current situation.
News & Notices from The Office Manager, Laura Stewart:
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]
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]
I have been working on planning for the lifting of restrictions of COVID-19 which will at some point allow for staff to return to Pedigree House when it is safe to do so. This is a considerable task and a lot of thought and preparation is being planned by myself and Barrie to ensure we are fully compliant with the advice that is being given by the Scottish Government.
I attended a Webinar on this during the week which proved to be very useful and I have been successful in sourcing the necessary consumables that will be required to allow us to work safely in the office from PPE to signage – the list is endless.
We will be having an interim meeting of the Executive committee by Zoom today to progress matters.
At the moment I continue to deal with the various IT issues and hiccups that arise on a daily basis due to the current way of working from home, to work out solutions to ensure that everyone continues to have the equipment and connectivity to carry out their job remotely.
News & Notices from The Accounts Department:
• FINAL REMINDER – ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION JANUARY 2020
If you have not yet paid your annual membership can you, please do so by return as this was due on the 1st January 2020. If we do not receive payment by the 31st July 2020, we will presume that you no longer wish to be members.
• PRE-ORDER HERD BOOK VOL 144:
Should you wish to buy Volume 144 of the Herd Book, then please complete the form and return ASAP.
You can either post or email this to Angela – email: [email protected]
To access your Pre-order Herd Book form then please click on the link below:
News & Notices from The Registrations Department:
We are working very hard to catch up with the registrations submitted online. This is our busiest time for registrations, and we do have a backlog at the moment.
The processes for handling DNA requests and updating results are changing next week. We hope that this will streamline the operation and make it more efficient. We have been spending a lot of time online with ABRI in Australia and Weatherby’s to set up these new ways of working. Again, please bear with us next week as we get it all up and running, there are bound to be some teething problems.
For the smooth running of the DNA process it is important to check that bulls have been DNA tested before they go out. Then we have the Sire profile on file, and we can easily verify the calves when they are tested.
News & Notices from Pedigree Cattle Services:
• We are up to date with weights at the moment but with communications being a bit hampered if you would like your weights to be included in the next ABRI run (9th July) please send them in with plenty of time available pre the close off date.
• Breedplan Scanners: Breedplan Scanners are back on the road now. At the moment they will just be scanning local (within a couple of hour’s drive) as there is no accommodation available. Hopefully, they will catch up with the backlog soon. Please contact them if you need scanning done so they can schedule you in, if you require any up to date weigh sheets please contact either Barbara, Helena or Amy. Email is a must on this so please send to Barbara directly: [email protected]
• If any members have photos of sale animals, and you would like them uploaded onto the website catalogue please send them to either Barbara or Amy.
News & Notices from The Ireland Office:
• Bulls for Sale
As the breeding season draws to a close on farms throughout the country, most purchasers have already sourced their bulls for 2020 but if you still require an Aberdeen-Angus bull, please click here for a list of breeders in your area who may have bulls for sale presently.
• In-Calf Heifers Wanted
The Irish Aberdeen-Angus Association has received a request for pedigree in-calf Aberdeen-Angus heifers. For full details please click here
From us all at the Society have a great weekend and stay safe!
