HE may have been a little later than others at getting in to the pedigree cattle game, but a Lanarkshire lad has already managed to hit the big time in the show ring and is hoping for a similar success story in the sale ring.

Although not brought up on a farm himself, Allan Campbell bought Strawfrank, back in 2011, where the family’s Campbell Haulage workshop and yard is based, which gave him the opportunity to get his foot on to the first steps of the farming ladder. He then built up his Strawfrank herd of pedigree Limousins which numbers 28 breeding females in a now closed herd, which is BVD and Johne’s accredited.

“I was always keen on the Limousin breed from a young age, so bought a few females, mostly cows with heifer calves at foot and back in calf again, from the Marlepark and Normande herds,” explained Allan, who is aided by free-lance stockman, Cammy Jackson, while Allan's father, Dick, still lends a hand with the day-to-day cattle work. 

“These were all easy fleshing sorts and I built up the herd with home-bred replacements from those initial females. I like big, strong, easy fleshing cows that any sort of bull could cover and still produce a strong calf.”

It was from one of these foundation females, Marlepark Celia, that Allan had his first taste of success in the show ring when the first calf born in the herd, Strawfrank Gina, went on to scoop the reserve female championship and best Scottish-bred animal tickets at the 2014 Royal Highland Show. It was this now six-year-old Ampertaine Bravo daughter that kicked off a successful run for the Strawfrank herd, with the most recent show goer, Strawfrank Leroy, bringing home a similar haul of prizes. 

This rising two-year-old Vagabond son, one of two Strawfrank bulls heading to Stirling next month, made his mark at the Scottish Grand Prix held at Haddington Show, where he stood junior male and male champion before taking the reserve supreme title, and also picked up the Limousin and continental beef championships at Lesmahagow. On offer at the newly formatted first week of the bull sales, and selling with a beef value of 53, this strapping lad also secured the pairs title at last November’s Stars of the Future event, at Stirling, alongside Strawfrank Lucy. 

His pen mate and lorry mate on the way to Stirling, is Strawfrank Larry, another shapely lad this time sired by Goldies Comet, which has done well for Iain Nimmo’s Maraiscote herd and certainly clicked with the females at Strawfrank. 

With a previous top price of 5800gns and bulls regularly selling at around the 5000gns mark, it is hoped that these two will also attract the cash, something Allan’s flock of 50 Texel ewes has done well at in the last few years. 

The flock regularly leads the Texel ram lamb prices at Kelso Ram Sales, reaching £5600 in 2015 and £5400 last year, with the 14 lambs on offer in 2016 cashing in to level at £1524 – not too bad for the flock that was also only established in 2011. 

With a busy haulage business that has some 20 lorries operating, plus the flock of Texels and recipient ewes to keep an eye on too, the cattle enterprise has to be pretty straightforward and this is all thanks to the Limousin breed. 

“The cows are easy calving, mostly getting on with it themselves and are very milky,” said Allan, speaking on his mainly February-calving herd which is housed on recycled wood chippings and straw in recently re-designed sheds during the winter months. 

“They’re kept at a body condition score of 4 all year round, and prior to calving get 15kg of silage with ad-lib straw and minerals. After calving they move on to a dairy diet of ad lib silage, straw, beet pulp and draft to get them milking and the calves never look back.”

As well as investing in new self-locking yoke systems for the two main cattle courts, Allan added a calving pen and seven bull pens, enabling the team to batch and feed different aged bulls. Also factored in, and adding to Allan’s commitment to weighing and measuring, was a new handling system which features a hydraulic weigh crate and EID reader.

“The Limousin is a well-balanced breed – it is neither the largest nor heaviest but represents a combination of maternal and beef qualities which are exceptional, dominating all agricultural and primestock shows,” pointed out Allan. “Limousin store cattle are always in high demand, topping store sales all over the UK, week in week out.”

While not selling any stores himself, any young bulls or heifers which don’t make the cut for future breeding are sold through Caledonian Marts or Harrison and Hetherington and certainly hold their own here too, averaging around £1400 at 15 months of age. 

But it’s all about getting the right bull to cover the right cow and so far the Strawfrank herd has mostly used AI, with Allan opting to use just two bulls per year in order to produce a uniform crop of calves.

Recently joining the herd was the privately purchased Homebyres Guthrie – a bull previously bought for a 16,000gns price tag by the Clark family, of the Dyes and Teiglum herds. His first batch of calves at Strawfrank is rising towards the yearling stage and showing a great deal of promise with one particular heifer, Strawfrank Misty, out of the same dam as Gina, already short-listed for the 2017 show season. 

As for the future, Allan recently purchased a 100-acre plot of land which is undergoing a bit of a makeover with regards to ditches, fences and soil quality, and this will enable him to increase cattle numbers to 60 breeding cows with the aim of offering more bulls per year and perhaps even a heifer or two. 

He further plans to increase the commercial flock of MV-accredited ewes to the 200 mark, but whether it’s the cattle or sheep side of the Strawfrank unit, he always keeps in mind the six ‘P’s – 'Previous planning prevents piss poor performance'.