Page 93 - Britich Blue Year Book 2023

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extreme Belgian type, looking for height, mobility and
calving ease and in these traits, Dotty was exceptional and
she also never needed a Caesarean.”
Another bull that that has made his mark at Stonebyres
was also from Danny Wylie, Tamhorn Enterprising, for
which they paid 7,900gns in 2011. Says Blair: “He was a
really good bull producing excellent females and some 75
calves by him have been registered in the herd book, 55
under our prefix, but as he was also used on commercial
cows, he would have produced 160 or so progeny. There
will be more in the future as we have plenty of his semen
in store. Our home-bred Ninja was a bull we retained for
some time as he was from a line of cows that had done
well for us and at the time, we could not find anything we
really wanted to replace him, and he was only sold last year
when he went into the Coul Estate’s pedigree and
commercial herds in Perthshire as a six year old.”
Stonebyres pedigree Blue heifers are calved for the first
time from 33 to 36 months old, normally to an easy
calving Blue bull, while the commercial heifers, which
have been bred for size and do have some Limousin blood,
will calve nearer to 30 months to a Blue bull. The average
weight of commercial cows in the herd is about 750kgs.
The pedigree cows are served, to an extent, to fit in with
the pedigree sales calendar and bulls are sold at 20 to 24
months old, with the preference being to sell heifers in the
October sale rather than bulls. The heifer average says
Shona, has been around the 4,000gns mark for the last
few years.
“We do pelvic scoring which is a useful tool, but I would
always consider the results in conjunction with what we
know about the breeding of any particular female,” she
says. “We have been Breedplan recording although that
did fall by the wayside during Covid and is something we
will reinstate. We have strived to maintain our original
goals of height, mobility and calving ease but we don’t
really have a colour preference. Caesareans are not
considered a disaster by any means but of course we are
keen to ensure we don’t have too many. The main thing
is we get a live calf. At one stage we have been at about
85 per cent natural calving, but we were aware we had lost
a little bit of shape and did then introduce some Belgian
semen which pulled that figure back, so it is something
which always comes into breeding decisions.”
The Stonebyres herd is high health status, always a bonus
on sale day, and it has also meant no replacement females
have been bought in since the early days. The majority of
cattle sold go through the ring, which Blair and Shona
believe is the best way of realising true value. Their best
pedigree female price to date has been 5,600gns for
Stonebyres Primrose, a 20 month old daughter of Clinton
du Falgi and out of Stonebyres Jasmine, in the Border
British Blue Club's 2021 autumn sale in Carlisle, that
being the day’s top price.
“We do have buyers who follow us for their replacement
heifers, and one thing on which we are very strict, whether
it be selling pedigree bulls or heifers is that we would not
try and sell anything through the ring or privately, that we
would not be happy to buy and breed from ourselves. We
go through everything carefully before a society sale and
have never had one fail inspection, and anything we are
not entirely happy with when we are going through them,
goes off fat when ready,” says Blair.
“I prefer to be completely honest with buyers of our stock,
as I want them to come back to us in the future.”
The farm’s reliance on artificial fertiliser has been reduced
as prices have increased and more strategic use of the
slurry from the commercial herd cubicles and pedigrees’
straw yards is now behind the policy to make the most out
of their own grass and about 50 acres of summer gazing.
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Stonebyres Samson