Synonymous with Aberdeen Angus cattle, the Rawburn herd has become globally recognised due to its focus on performance combined with quality.

Having been founded originally by John Elliot senior in the 1970s with the herd name The Watch, the Rawburn herd now resides at Roxburgh Mains under the management of John’s son, John junior.

John Elliot Jnr acquired the Linton Gilbertines herd a couple of years ago and now the two run together, calving over 400 head of cattle, of which 150 are recipient females.

“We have about 275 Angus cows and the rest are mostly recipients. There are a few Shorthorns and Limousins throughout them, but not many,” said John.

While numbers have increased, the herd’s philosophy hasn’t changed, striving to produce quality Angus cattle with the performance to match.

This philosophy was first set out by John senior after a highly educational Nuffield scholarship across America, which strengthened his leaning towards objective measurement and recording, which were becoming popular in the US at the time.

With this in mind and having seen the best of the best on the scholarship, both top bulls and females were imported, live and via semen.

“By using bulls which were not only appealing to the eye but which were proven performance leaders, genetic progress was measurable and dramatic over a comparatively short period,” John senior added.

Since the early 1980s, the Elliots have continued to travel the US importing the best bloodlines available, acquiring a number of high-end cows for flushing programmes throughout the years.

One of the first highlights was the importation of an embryo which resulted in one of the most recognised names in the breed, Rawburn Transformer. This son of Hoff Great Western and Willabar Tilda was a stand-out from day one when he was born in 1999.

John Snr reflects: “Transformer was reared by the smallest two-year-old purebred heifer we had. When he was 200 days old, he weighed 5kg more than she did! Transformer lived to 11 years and was without doubt the greatest bull we have used.”

Benchmark

Transformer and his progeny would later go on to set the benchmark with regard to performance-driven animals that had show ring appeal. This has been the backbone to the Rawburn herd success, so it’s no surprise figures still remain a vital part of the programme.

“Figures are something we strongly believe in, making sure the data we put in is highly accurate and done over high quantities, so the animals that are stand-out individuals come to the top.

“That’s why when they do get used in AI, you don’t get disappointing results. These cattle are in large contemporary groups. Their performance is recorded against each other, so there’s none getting preferential treatment, so we know exactly which animals are the standout individuals.

“As long as they are structurally sound and look the part, it’s just about making sure the standout individuals come back into our own programme. That’s what we have tried to do. Yes, our cattle are high-performance, but they’re also breeding the show-winning animals too.

“We sell semen privately and, of course, a lot of our bulls are marketed in Ireland through different agencies. That’s one of the things we take great pride in is that our genetics are working out for other people.

“We saw success in southern Ireland recently with the Boss Hogg son, but a lot of our genetics have been winning in other places too, all of the major shows in the UK. There’s over twice the number of offspring sired by our bulls than anybody else’s. It’s something we are very proud of.”

As previously mentioned, the herd carries out an extensive embryo programme which sees in the region of 250 embryos implanted each year.

Embryo work

“We do a lot of embryo work, cows in the Rawburn herd and also abroad. We are running about a dozen cows in North America that we take embryos from. We sell embryos off these cows, as well as embryos from our own higher-profile females. We sell embryos all over Europe now. I think last year it was nine countries and semen would go to a lot more than that.”

While semen and embryo sales have become a big part of the business, John still firmly believes the herd’s success at ground level is the most important aspect.

“Everything works off the back of the success in the herd. Guys only use our stuff if they can see what it’s doing. I think the foundation for us is the herd and the rest just falls into line after that.”

Future

“The breed is in a good place. Year on year, I see more registrations, more commercial men using the bulls and certainly I see our own sales multiplying.

“Cattle that require reduced labour, that’s got to be a big factor, because it’s harder to get good people to work on the farm anymore. We’re selling over 100 bulls and that’s one of the first things the buyers say is they just can’t find staff, so these bulls have to calve themselves.

“We have five full-time workers on the two farms. We’re very fortunate that these guys have been here for a very long time and they know the job. But it’s generally a problem within the industry. Nobody wants to be working these kinds of hours. So bulls have to reduce the labour.

“Sometimes guys have to do their sums on the labour. Factor in putting hands on cows or even a caesarean and the profit is completely out of the job at that point. It’s a bigger picture than just one animal on the final sale day.

“Our own focus is to keep the performance we have, but to do it more efficiently. The Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society is now engaged to do feed efficiency on store cattle, but it’s such a small scale compared with what they’re doing in North America.

“In Britain, it’s not at a big enough scale to give high accuracy, so the way we saw to go forward was to tap into the best genetics the US has that are proven in feed efficiency.”

And that they did. In 2016, the herd made its largest single investment when it purchased Nichols Bonnie Y292 and the importation of semen from her son Nicholas Expectation C370.

At the time of purchase, Expectation C370 stood as the highest-ranked bull for residual average daily gain (RADG) born in 2015 in the continent of North America.

“Another thing about feed efficiency which shouldn’t be underestimated is highly efficient cattle on a concentrate diet are also highly efficient cattle on a grass-based diet. So the ability of the females of these bulls to be able to wean more kilogrammes off grass is much greater.

Easy finish

“We have to look for animals that finish more easily and grow as quickly as possible to killing weight. We would hope that most guys would be able to get their steers away between 12 and 14 months. I think keeping cattle for two summers is just a quick way of losing money.”

John sees RADG figures are the key to further increasing their customers’ profit margin.

“By choosing for this trait, it will enable our customers to breed animals that not only reach slaughter weight quickly, but do it on less feed. Expectation C370’s US figures suggest that his offspring will generate £40 additional profit per head due to their superior feed utilisation.”

Saying that, John thinks the breed is in a good place with regard to cow size and would like to see RADG traits linked with that of an above-average mature cow.

“I don’t want to see the cattle getting small again. We have to keep the growth and size too. I think my ideal size of a cow is 800kg to 850kg. There’s a lot written about smaller cows, but I tend to find its larger-sized cows that tend to wean the best calves and give you the biggest return.

“The premium for the Angus breed is massive. We run the Angus alongside the continental cattle and with the Angus getting the premium, I know which ones pay better for me! I think if we can get these cattle to be born easily, grow quickly and then get a premium, it’s hard to beat.”