BLUEBALANCEFORMEAT ANDMOBILITY
BLUEBALANCEFORMEAT ANDMOBILITY
Breeding Belgian Blues with high growth rates and conformation but good mobility is the
key aim of one Staffs-based breeder. Jeremy Hunt reports
GROWTH rates of 1.7kg/day achieved on a beef unit near Tamworth indicate that Belgian Blues compete closely with other major Continental breeds.
Jane and Danny Wyllie focus on breeding for growth and mobility, avoiding extremes of conformation.
Although the Wyllies Tamhorn herd was established only six years ago, it has had a remarkable impact on the Belgian Blue breed. In 1999, it took the breed societys premier breeder award and the top show exhibitor title.
As well as a string of major show wins – including the 1997 Royal Show female championship at their first attempt – the Wyllies stock has won acclaim among commercial suckled calf producers.
The fact that bulls bred in the herd achieved the top price of 7000gns in two consecutive breed society sales at Carlisle – and at one fixture averaged 5000gns for five bulls sold – is testament to the success of its breeding policy.
Some of the earliest stock selections bought from Belgium to create the herds foundation included animals whose conformation was not sufficiently extreme for Belgian breeders.
But the Wyllies wanted to breed Belgian Blue cattle with good conformation and the ability to grow and walk well.
"We were convinced the breed had a tremendous future in the UK, but extreme conformation and its adverse impact on mobility was not the road we wanted to go down," says Mr Wyllie.
"Striking the balance is a constant challenge and sometimes we have to use extreme bulls on our British-bred females to achieve the compromise. Belgian breeders are looking for a different type of animal to do a different job.
"They want a meat machine and will even produce triple-muscled cattle that kill out at 70%. Great cattle for this purpose, but dont ask them to walk anywhere."
The Wyllies herd was established in 1995 with foundation females Glebedale Jane and Norbreck Kitty. A trip to Belgium two years later added four heifers from the Fond-du-Bois and Wolvendree herds.
Mr Wyllie had worked with the breed for 15 years during his time as herd manager with top Scottish stockbreeder Robert Graham.
"I knew it had potential and had begun to show great improvement compared with the early imported bulls that had poor growth and bad legs."
Aware there was a huge and relatively untapped market for Belgian Blue bulls to produce high quality suckled calves, the Wyllies set about their breeding plan.
They maintained double-muscling traits – but avoided extreme shape – and selected for good growth rate, sound legs and fluidity of movement.
Walking ability
"Suckler bulls on hill and upland farms must be able to walk. We were convinced suckled calf producers would begin buying Belgian Blue bulls in quantity if they had better legs, but still provided the advantages of good shape and growth rates," says Mrs Wyllie.
Careful appraisal of sires on offer to breeders in Belgium led to two bulls from the Haliba and Linalux bull breeding centres being used on the Tamhorns foundation females.
Banquier du Moulin Derbaix and Cristal de Somme were the two bulls selected, based on their growth performance figures from the Belgian evaluation programme.
"These bulls had size and scope, were well muscled without being extreme, had good legs and impressive growth performance figures," says Mr Wyllie.
For the first two years, the six foundation females were flushed and produced 30 calves a year.
Herd numbers are now increasing, but there are still only 18 females. The Wyllies aim is to produce an annual crop of about 50 calves using embryo transfer.
Among the latest stars are three young heifers – including a full sister to show winning cow Tamhorn Oriana – each impressing for their overall correctness combined with excellent legs and hindquarter muscling.
The herds new stock bull is Tamhorn Sumo. This son of Affute Du Ry Ossogne has a 400-day weight of 641kg and his EBV of 25 puts him in the breeds top 1% on performance.
Performance recording, conducted by Signet, forms an important aspect of the herds management, but calves are not pushed too early. "We have just weaned three ET-bred calves at almost nine months old by a new Belgian-bred bull that achieved the highest 400-day weight on test.
"The calves gained 1.6-1.7kg a day with no creep feed offered until five months old," says Mr Wyllie.
Performance levels are attracting both UK and Belgian interest, as Belgian breeders seek to improve growth rates. A party of Belgian breeders was due to visit the herd to inspect bulls just as foot-and-mouth restrictions were imposed in February.
Mr Willie, who sold his last Charolais in 1998, says when he set up the herd he thought it would take a long time for the Belgian Blue to compete with breeds like Charolais on growth rate.
"But our figures have proved they can compete. I was amazed at the wealth of high growth rate genetics available in the breed in Belgium and given the chance, they can have a significant impact on UK Belgian Blues." *
BREEDINGBLUESFORUK
• High growth rates.
• Good mobility.
• Non-extreme conformation.
Danny Wyllie (above left)hopes to build female numbers in his Tamhorn herd. Tinkerbell (pictured) is one of his current favourites.