Scottish and Northern Charolais Breeders have a newly elected top table. David Grant of Gelston, Castle Douglas succeeds Neil Caul as chairman, while the new vice chairman is Jim Milne, of Lhanbryde, Elgin. Alison Gray, of Arbroath continues as secretary.

from left, SNCB new chairman, David Grant; secretary, Alison Gray; new vice chairman, Jim Milne and treasurer, Yvonne Grant.

“I’m looking forward to the three year term of office during which I plan to continue my predecessor’s progressive work promoting Charolais as the UK’s premier beef breed at every opportunity, whether it be at annual shows and exhibitions or through our own initiatives, including the highly successful National Charolais Show,” says David who has spent a lifetime working with the breed. “I’m particularly keen to encourage more youngsters to get involved in the breed and understand for themselves its benefits, through YFC activities, calf shows and other sponsored initiatives.”

David discovered for himself those benefits more than three decades ago after using Charolais as a terminal sire over Gelston Castle Farms commercial suckler herd. “Since then, I’ve since been a great believer in the breed because it consistently leaves cattle that achieve extra weight for age, and its weight that pays.” Establishing a pedigree Charolais herd at Gelston Castle was a natural progression and Kelton now amounts to 40 cows. “We planned to breed a few bulls for our own use, however I got hooked and in the last 25 years we’ve produced strings of successful bulls including the 18,000gns Perth class winner, Kelton Dauphin.”

He adds: “I am even more optimistic for the breed since the society rolled out in the last few months Breedplan technology, its new registration and genetic evaluation system service provider. It’s a great new powerful tool for all commercial men which not only helps them to select bulls on growth rate and conformation, but also identify more readily those for calving ease. Breedplan will help all commercial farmers to take advantage of Charolais’ accelerated genetic progress in their selection making decisions and subsequently improve their suckled calves performance.”

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