The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
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“They calve very easily – we have had 100% calving for the last two years – they have a fantastic temperament and they lend themselves to our system.
“We are also potato merchants and have delivery commitments on a daily basis, so the fact they are resilient means they dovetail into our business really well.”
Moving from finishing cattle to producing his own might have been a challenge with some breeds, but Willie said the change was made simple by the versatility of the Gascons.
Calves are born at 36-38kg, with the bull calves weighing in at 40-42kg.
Bull calves are finished to 16 months, when they are sent to slaughter at 420kg, while finishing cattle are slaughtered at 24 months at 390-400kg deadweight.
Mothers return to bull quickly, averaging 1.1 calves a year, giving the herd added longevity.
“They can be out wintered in the hills without any issues,” he added.
“We calve indoors for easier management, but afterwards they are off outside in February and they are quite happy.
“Before we were struggling to finish cattle that we were buying-in as stores at 30 months, whereas now we are putting these cattle away six months earlier,” he said.
“What’s more, we’re using less inputs and we’re hitting U grades, which we never did before.”
In future Willie plans to continue breeding stock, adding to the UK’s Gascon population of 550 cattle and selling animals to new producers through the Gascon society, of which he is vice-chairman.
He is also making use of genotyping to produce bulls with the myostatin, or double-muscling gene. Willie hopes that through breeding, he will be able to make use of the gene to produce slightly larger, more commercially-appealing stock which are still easy to calve.
“First and foremost we are a commercial unit, and as such we need to add more to the back end. Over three calvings though we are seeing the influence we want to achieve.
“Everyone’s first reaction is that they’ve never heard of them or seen them before, and it’s like they’ve slipped under the radar,” he added.
“They might not be the complete answer, but they certainly tick a lot of the boxes for us, and I couldn’t imagine life without them now.”