The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Farm gets ready for Big Beef Event
PROFILE: Milne family ready to welcome crowds to Oldmeldrum for biennial gathering
A selective breeding process and a close eye on the market are key drivers behind the success of the Aberdeenshire farm hosting Scotland’s Beef Event next week.
North Bethelnie Farm by Oldmeldrum is a 500-acre all-grass unit run by Robbie and Barbara Milne and their son James.
The farm, which will host the event on Thursday May 30, is home to a herd of 340 Salers and Salers cross cows, as well as a flock of 200 Continental cross ewes.
The family recently expanded its herd and has plans for further expansion – 64 heifers are due to calve in November and 28 heifers were put to the bull this spring.
“We calve heifers in November, which gives them time to recover from their first calving before joining the January herd, while cows are calved in two batches from January to midFebruary and April to the end of June,” said Robbie.
“We spend more time watching than helping. The aim is to get calves on the ground without any assistance.”
He said the farm operated a strict culling policy – while a January cow or heifer may be allowed to slip into the April-calving herd, they are only given one more chance to get in-calf, and if they are found empty they are culled. Likewise, anything found empty in the April herd is also culled.
The Milnes’ move to Salers started in the late 1990s.
“Our herd was a Heinz 57 variety before that and we were having calving problems,” added Robbie.
“The Salers are easily calved and good mothers with plenty of milk and the herd is now 99% Salers or Salers cross. It also makes it easier to select sires to suit a more uniform bunch of cows of the same breed.”
Cows are wintered indoors on silage, straw and draff from the nearby Glengarioch distillery. Soya is added at one third of a kg per cow per day, three weeks before calving and continued afterwards to improve colostrum.
All cows are crossed with Charolais bulls, which the Milnes source from France, and Aberdeen-Angus bulls, alongside Salers, are being used on heifers for ease of calving.
On hosting next week’s event, Robbie said: “We run a commercial operation which we hope people will find of interest. We will learn as much from it as visitors coming to the farm on the day.”