CLAIMS THAT frozen semen straws from 1976 had set the benchmark for ancient genetics producing a healthy calf in the modern day have been challenged by a Stirlingshire farmer who has four calves on the ground from straws taken from a champion bull in 1974.

Robin Kyle, a commercial beef finisher at Inch of Leckie farm, Kippen, has recently established the Black Diamond herd of native Aberdeen-Angus, with his daughter Jenna. They had sourced some native type heifers from Forfar's famed Dunlouise herd, and on appealing for some suitably traditional genetics to use on them, were offered straws from former Royal Highland Show A-A winner Prattle of Haymount, a bull born in 1969 that enjoyed a strong show career in the 1970s.

The Kyles, with an eye on the changing demands of the marketplace, were keen to follow that route back in time, to the shorter, thicker A-As of an earlier era – and the four calves that resulted from an embryo flush off the native genetics have not disappointed, with Mr Kyle reporting them to be a chip off the old block.

"The old A-As were very different to modern breeding and we wanted to get back to that. Smaller carcases are in demand, and these natives flesh up for free," he said.

Via the Rare Breed Survival Trust, the Kyles may soon try an even more ambitious genetic revival, with native A-A straws dating back as far as 1964.

The whole subject of reviving vintage bloodlines came to light last month when Caithness AI technician Willie Mackay reported a successful insemination with Romagnola straws that had lain frozen since 1976.