25/02/09
British Charolais breeders have been recognised for the genetic progress made to their herds during the last 12 months with a new award presented by the Harman family, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, one of the founding members of the breed society.
The winners, from left John and Sandra Middleton; Snowdon Oates and Bob Adam receive their plaques from BCCS president, Peter Vasey and BCCS chairman, Iain Millar
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Herd progress was measured by female performance taking in their maternal traits expressed in its Self Replacing Index (SRI). All Breedplan recording society members with a minimum recorded 10 calves were eligible to enter.
The winning member in England is Snowdon Oates, Chester-le-Street (Ravensworth) with a 12 month SRI improvement from SRI +18.8 to SRI +25.3; Northern Ireland: John and Sandra Middleton, Derry (Hollywell) SRI +22.1 to SRI +28.3; Scotland: Drew and Bob Adam, Forfar (Newhouse) SRI +25.6 to SRI +29.8; Wales: Gareth Jones, Bala (Esgob) SRI +24.3 to SRI +32.1.
“I’m pleased to introduce the award to recognise the contribution my late grandfather, Tony and father, Dan have made to the society,” Ben Harman explained. Tony was a founder member of the society and among the first to officially import Charolais in the early 1960s and go on to establish the Chesham herd which has since been inherited by Ben, while Dan Harman continues to manages the Silver herd. “The Harman Charolais Genetic Improvement Award is designed to recognise Charolais breeders, including those up and coming ones, for their drive and enthusiasm to use the Breedplan recording system to help select more accurately for elite commercial traits within their respective herds. Each of the four winners have demonstrated real improvement in the herd’s SRI indices in the last 12 months, which will in turn contribute towards enhancing the UK commercial beef herd’s performance.”
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