Blelack Angus autumn calving section sold in multi thousand pound deal

The entire autumn calving section of Neil and Graeme Massie’s Blelack Aberdeen-Angus herd at Dinnet, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, has been sold to a Yorkshire breeder in a multi thousand pound deal.

The 25 cows, mostly in calf to the Massie’s Royal Highland Show champion, the two year old Blelack Egotist G035, have been sold to Miss Gini Guttery who is upgrading her Oak Moor herd at Haxby, near York.

“We started a Beef Shorthorn herd a few years ago and two-thirds of the calves in our Aberdeen-Angus and Charolais herds over the past two years have been heifers,” said Graeme Massie. “As a result we now have over 300 cows in total and need to cut back.”

The 65 cows over three years of age in the spring calving section of the Angus herd are due to be sold at the Blelack Matrons’ on-farm sale at Blelack on Monday, October 8, on the final day of the North East Aberdeen-Angus Club’s Ruby Anniversary tour of North-east herds.

A sale of the 50 autumn calving cows and calves in the Charolais herd is planned for next spring.

“We will still have around 100 cows in the Aberdeen-Angus herd, and a similar number in the Charolais herd, with another 30 in the Beef Shorthorn herd,” said Mr Massie. “Cow numbers will no doubt expand again quite quickly as we have 20 recipient cows carrying Aberdeen-Angus embryos.”

The Matrons’ sale will be the first major public sale of females from Blelack in the herd’s 40 year history and is expected to attract huge interest from across the UK and Ireland, as well as from overseas.