One of Scotland’s leading stockmen, with a string of championship successes at the Royal Highland and Royal shows and Perth Bull Sales behind him during a 51-year career with the Durno family’s renowned Uppermill Beef Shorthorn herd at Tarves, in Aberdeenshire, has died at the age of 91.

Robbie Minty was not only a gifted cattleman but a shrewd judge of stock who played a major role in the pedigree breeding programme at Uppermill and the selection of stock bulls which secured the herd’s reputation as one of the top Beef Shorthorn herds in the country.

Born at Lendrum, Turriff, one of a family of eight, Robbie left school at the age of 13 and a half years of age to start work with the late Dr James Durno assisting his father who was dairyman with the Uppermill dairy herd. He moved on to become assistant cattleman with the Shorthorn herd at nearby Tillycairn farm in 1949 and in 1965 took over as herd manager in succession to Alistair Forbes who had emigrated to Australia.

His 51 years managing the Uppermill Shorthorn herd was a golden era for the herd at national and local shows with countless championships to the herd’s credit at the Royal Highland and Royal Shows over the years as well as local shows such as Turriff.

His record at the national shows is nine Perth February bull sale championships (he had retired by the time of Stirling), 12 Royal Highland Show championships and 15 Royal Show championships.

Robbie’s success at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, were such that when there was a move to scrap the Beef Shorthorn classes at the show because of the diminishing number of Shorthorns being shown, the chief steward remarked that they couldn’t do that because Robbie and his Shorthorn champion usually led the grand parade and nobody else would know their way round the main ring without him in the lead!

A vintage year was at the Royal Highland Show in 1981 when Uppermill won the Queen’s Cup as supreme champion over 14 other breeds and the breed won the coveted Farming News Trophy for the best four animals of any breed with all four of the winning Shorthorn team coming from Uppermill – a feat never achieved before or since by any other herd or breed.

Uppermill also provided at least one and often both Shorthorns for the Burke Trophy competition for the best pair of beef animals – bull and female – at the Royal Show, winning in 1994 when an Uppermill cow was one of the pair.

It was, however, a time of change for Scotland’s native cattle breeds with the virtual demise of the lucrative post-war export trade for Beef Shorthorn and Aberdeen-Angus bulls to the USA and Argentina and the advent of the continental breeds to produce the larger, stretchier and faster-growing cattle demanded by the home commercial market.

Robbie was quick to embrace these changes and with the late Mary Durno, who had succeeded her late father, and her cousin, the late Fraser Durno, accepted that the Beef Shorthorn breed had to change as well. He was sent to Canada to the Toronto Winter Fair to see the larger type of Shorthorn in North America which were beginning to be imported into the UK.

He later returned to buy a stock bull and together with bloodlines from Bill Bruce at Balmyle, who had introduced the French Maine Anjou breed into his Shorthorn herd, and semen from the Australian bull, Mandalong Super Elephant, a start was made to produce the type of cattle Robbie thought were needed. A bull calf and two heifer calves by the Mandalong sire were maintained in the herd and descendants can still be found in the herd to this day.

Two bulls by Canadian sires were also bought from Watt Taylor’s Pennan herd and turned up at Uppermill in their working clothes. Robbie’s father, who by this time had a retirement job at Tillycairn, was not impressed and asked Robbie what he was going to do with them. His reply was that he was going to win the Highland Show with them and he did with both. He had realised their potential from the outset despite their lack of show condition.

Robbie retired in 1996 but until the last year or two had never missed a bull sale at Perth or Stirling or the Royal Highland Show, latterly enjoying the comfort and relaxation of the train or bus. His advice was always eagerly sought by Shorthorn breeders and cattleman and he was a mentor to many younger people coming in to the breed.

He was disappointed when the decision was made to sell the herd but delighted that the herd was bought in its entirety by Bill and James Porter in Northern Ireland and that the Uppermill prefix lives on.

Robbie’s contribution to the Shorthorn breed was recognised with a clutch of awards over the years, including the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 1977, the Haig Gold Medal at the Highland Show for the Herdsman with the best presented cattle, the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s honours in 1985 and at the last bull sale at Perth in 2012 when he was presented with a silver salver and crystal glasses by the Beef Shorthorn Cattle Society to mark his 60 years attendance at the show and sale.

Robbie is survived by his wife Beatrice, daughters Morag and Fiona, and five grand-children and four great grand-children. His funeral took place at Tarves Church on Wednesday (May 17).