FRANK Milnes, chief executive of the Beef and Dairy Shorthorn societies for the past 16 years, officially retired at the Great Yorkshire Show this week.
He has had a lifelong interest in the Shorthorn breed and has made a significant contribution to its rich history, however he says one of his greatest achievements has been developing and maintaining a very close affiliation between two diverse societies.
“I’ve witnessed the Beef Shorthorn breed’s resurgence, from being listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust with 650 annual registrations in 2000 to 3833 in the last 12 months, while despite the UK dairy farmer population halving during the last 16 years, the UK Shorthorn Society’s annual registrations has been maintained at more than 2600,” said Mr Milnes.
“Following a period of modernisation, Beef Shorthorn has been able to respond to farmers demand for a functional suckler cow. Breeders have continued to progress the breed by adopting some of the most modern tools including ABRI Breedplan performance recording register, while last year we introduced linear classification which enables them to immediately identify the strongest bloodlines to select from, which in turn accelerates progress within their breeding programmes and offer an improved functional suckler cow.
“In 2011, we launched a pioneering, exemplary initiative requiring all animals sold at official society sales to come from herds which were part of a Cattle Health Certification Standards scheme and blood tested for three diseases – BVD, IBR and Johne’s.
“Finally since 2010, we have been developing a partnership with Morrisons which culminated this week with the supermarket launching branded Shorthorn Beef.
“On the dairy front, the Shorthorn Society Council’s biggest decision this year was agreeing to close the herdbook to direct importations of outside blood, enabling previous improvements to be consolidated and maintain the breed’s important traits.”
He added “Going forward, I have every confidence breeders will continue to respond to market demand and the societies simultaneously communicate these positive messages to their target marketplace.”