SOME TOP Canadian genetics came to the fore in the Beef Shorthorn calf show when John Elliot jnr's Elliot Echo 338 came out on top in front of judge, Willie McLaren jnr, Netherton, Blackford, in its first show outing.

The winning heifer calf was born in April and is out of SBF WHR Janet, a dam which Mr Elliot paid C$10,000 to get to provide embryos for his young Shorthorn herd, while the sire, Star P Matrix, was the sire of Elliot Matrix which was sold for £10,000 privately to Duncan McDowell, in Northern Ireland.

Her full ET sibling, Elliot Echo 340, born two days later, was third prize heifer in the same class, while another, a bull born just after that, Elliot Finest Hour, was first in his class.

John Thomson and his son, Matthew, produced the reserve champion in Shawhill Kenco, a March-born bull bred out of Glenisla Eva Broadhooks, from their herd at Newlands, Eaglesfield, Lockerbie.

Bred out of a foundation cow, Glenisla Eva Broadhooks – which had been bought at Stirling as a heifer – he is by their own Shawhill Henderson, a bull which goes back to stock bred from an imported Canadian embryo. He had been first at Langholm Show.