Rawburn Aberdeen Angus Herd Policy 2010

Three factors are critical in the ethos of the RAWBURN Aberdeen Angus herd. They are Management, Genetics and Marketing; normal commercial management, unexcelled genetics for optimum production and cross industry national and international marketing.

Herd Management
The importance to us of our commercial bull market has demanded that our pedigree cattle are managed in a commercially realistic manner. Cows must calve in a short period. They are fed and looked after in a labour efficient way using largely home grown feeds. After weaning bull and heifer calves are separated and their management is unchanged from year to year. No individual animal gets favourable treatment. At 400 days of age calves are weighed and scanned. Their records are processed by the UK Aberdeen Angus Society and ABRI Breedplan. Apart from extra expense due to AI, ET, performance recording and maintenance of Premium Health Status, costs of managing the herd are in line with those of our commercial clients.

Herd Genetics
Our practice over several decades has been and remains to source superior genetics wherever in the world they happen to be. Twice in the past four years we have bought the top priced bull sold at auction in the UK. In addition to our British herd we own a small herd of Canadian and American cows based in Western Canada. These are quite simply the most eye appealing and highest performing females we could find. These are flushed to bulls which we think will contribute most to our objective of optimum performance and ease of management in our British herd and in the herds of our customers.

A bulwark in our breeding programme has been the repeated feature of the bull Scotch Cap and his descendents. In an effort to find new and better genetics to reduce management costs, optimise production and improve our end product, we have to a limited extent used DNA analysis. This is in its infancy and of largely academic use at present, however we are well aware of the rapid strides being made and of its huge potential. The success of our breeding programme is demonstrated by the fact that the eleven top bull calves and also the eleven top heifer calves born in UK in 2007 ranked by ABRI Breedplan, are in our herd. We also own or have bred the top 6 males and the top 5 females of any age in the country.

Marketing
Most animals are sold on farm, however on occasion and more frequently over the past few years bulls and heifers have been sold by public auction. Among our recent successes are the breed record priced female, sold for 16,000 guineas in 2004, the record priced animal ever sold at Carlisle Angus Sale – a heifer sold for 10,000 guineas in 2007 and at the most recent Perth Bull Sale, the joint top priced bull.

Glamorous and exciting as are these high prices and other show successes, the mainspring of our breeding programme and the eventual destination of most of our bulls is the hard commercial world – A world of ruthless cost cutting and difficult trading conditions where only the production of five star beef can pay. Marketing is for us the science of bringing people to the farm, getting them to try our cattle and getting them to come back again and again. It incorporates selling, advertising; public relations and pioneering new genetics. Our marketing methods are constantly reviewed! Sometimes we advertise in farming journals, other times we use direct mail. We contact potential clients by telephone.

We study sale reports to locate possible areas of expansion. Those who have bought are contacted at strategic intervals to ensure that their purchase is working out. Nothing affects business more positively or negatively than the handling of a complaint. Our guarantees are more comprehensive and for a longer period than the statutory terms and conditions devised by The National Beef Association which are in use at pedigree sales. We regard marketing as an exercise in keeping our customers happy by solving their problems.

In conclusion we keep management costs low, we handle only the best and we treat every customer as if the world revolves round them – it does!