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NI farmers who have been able to access semen from an Aberdeen Angus (AA) bull purchased in 2019 by Foyle Food Group are now starting to see the benefits of using top genetics.
The bull, Elliot Bravo T452, was purchased from Scottish breeder, John Elliot. Bravo is in the top 25% of the breed for calving ease and the top 1% for several traits including growth.
Overall, the bull has a terminal sire index of 55 and self-replacing index of 80, which compares to the breed average of 34 and 45 respectively.
Between late summer 2021 and mid-January 2022, he has supplied 61 suckler-bred Angus cattle, all AI bred from a selection of six Angus bulls, one of which was Bravo
Semen from the bull is available to members of Aberdeen Angus Quality Beef (AAQB) Ltd, a producer co-operative that supplies Foyle with Angus cattle.
Among the farmers using the semen in 2019 was Ballymoney suckler producer Sam McLean.
Between late summer 2021 and mid-January 2022, he has supplied 61 suckler-bred Angus cattle, all AI bred from a selection of six Angus bulls, one of which was Bravo.
As shown in Table 1, the Bravo bred steers grow faster, have heavier weights at slaughter and better conformation grades.
In addition, Sam has supplied eight Bravo heifers, which again have outperformed heifers from other sires, killing into 334kg at 20 months.
He also routinely weighs calves at birth. At 43.7kg, the Bravo calves were 1kg lighter than their compatriots and the gestation period was two days shorter. There have been 50 more Bravo calves born on the McLean farm in the last two months.
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