Page 95 - British Blue Yearbook 2023

contacted dad who was running a similar system with Longhorns and Belgian Blues and thought it might work here. But he had only managed to run it for a few years before he sadly died. I have always liked the crosses and coming here I had the opportunity to give it a go. I feel Dad never got a chance to give it a go, so I would like to see it though and establish a market for them.”
So once Mr MacDiarmid took on the position at Coul they went about establishing a fold of 60 highland cattle which have come from across Scotland.
Mr McDermid said: “We bought the bulk of them from Invercassley Estate in Sutherland at a private dispersal. And then picked up others across Scotland.”
The cows all go to the British Blue bull in the summer for calving outside in March bar ten which are kept pure for replacements. The easy kept cows get adlib bales of silage with minerals over the winter to keep them going. The heifers go to the bull at three years to ensure they have the size for calving.
“The trick is picking the right bull”, said Mr MacDiarmid. “Our bull came from Gary Patterson at Aultmore and gives good calves with no problems. The bull leaves them with good shape and no calving issues bar one in four years. We need to remember that the Highland cow has a very big pelvis for the size of the animal.”
Mr MacDiarmid’s top tips for putting a British Blue bull over a Highland cow are:-
One of the biggest challenges to the production on the farm is keeping a high pregnancy rate. Currently the herd achieves a weaning percentage of around 80-85% in the Bluegrass cattle which is typical for a low ground farm and excellent for a hill farm. One of the hill challenges is ensuring the cows have access to the bull. The cows can range over six miles of hill ground during bulling season which means Mr MacDiarmid is regularly turning the cows back to the bull with the quad bike.
The Bluegrass calves get the same treatment as a pure calf would, being kept on the hill all summer and with no creep feed.
“We are selling the steer calves store last year for an average of between £870 and £920 at 290kg liveweight which is more than double what we would get if the Highlands were bred pure,” explained Mr McDermid. The steers are sold at between six and eight months at the sale in Dingwall in the middle of October. The heifers are brought through to bulling heifers at 24 months and the first of them are for sale this November in calf to British Blue bull, Solway View Odin. The heifers are outside until the end of February then inside for two months on silage and draff before returning to grass in May.
Mr MacDiarmid said: “I met a buyer at the Black Isle show and said they fattened off the rough ground which he had struggled to achieve with other breeds.”
Pedigree
1. Pick an easy calving bull.
2. Have the bull in working condition in the field ideally at around 800kg to 9000kg.
3. Don’t be too good to the cows pre-calving to minimise calving issues.
4. Be good to the cows once calved with some supplementary feeding and access to good grass
Calving starts in March outdoors for the Bluegrass system with Allan admitting that “Some days you go out and you find a calf with 1⁄2 an inch of snow on its back. But they are remarkably resilient and good at surviving in difficult conditions. I have heard some people worried about the calves’ coats but consistently they inherit their mother’s thick hairy coat which is needed when they are born on the hill 800 feet above sea level. We will on occasion take the odd one in to check if it has received colostrum, but the majority are not handled after tagging and banding until late may when they come in for dehorning and tick treatment before being turned out onto the 8000 acres of hill.”
Solway View Pixie and Rosie
The owners Mr and Mrs Fletcher are also keen to develop their pure British Blue herd of cattle which currently has six pure cows. The vision is to build to 20 pure cows with an extra 15 Fleckvieh recipients for embryo transfer.
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