'O wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oorsels as others see us'

Maybe on occasion it isn’t the worst thing to see ourselves as others see us. Two articles have recently attracted my attention.

The first was from Tesco, who were responding to concerns from the National Beef Association over the lack of British beef in their stores. “We are constantly reviewing product quality and are finding the beef from Ireland to be a better quality.”

The second statement was from Daniel Mushrush, a third generation rancher, from Kansas: “From time to time someone posts a picture of a British animal on Facebook.” He commented further on of beef producers worldwide 'sharing disdain for badly structured double-muscled cattle. Sometimes they actually brag about high birth weights. Almost no-one else gets what some of you Brits are about.'

I find Tesco difficult to fathom, as Ireland and the UK have similar climates and bovine genetics, and our main processors operate in both countries. The second statement, I understand completely.

Anyone from overseas looking at photos of some high selling bulls and winners of our national prime stock shows might assume that they are typical of cattle on farms and that the aim of British cattle breeders in general is to have animals like that.

The contrast with their own stock on the prairies, pampas, or outback, couldn’t be more marked. They will assume that our cattle will require a high degree of assistance at calving and, at the end of their lives, will be devoid of marbling which would put them into the lowest price grade in their own country.

My own views of eating quality recently provoked an extreme reaction from some of the local butchers and meat wholesalers, however it must be beyond dispute that calving ease is high priority for beef producers – whether they be in Kansas or Scotland.

The challenge is how to achieve it without losing growth. Also, identifying the problem certainly doesn’t mean solving it.

The US Angus Association analysed the EBVs of 32,252 bulls born in 2015 to find out how many were in the top 5% for both low birth weight and also high yearling weight. Only five bulls qualified.

They made a further survey of 3945 older bulls with many calves on the ground. Only two bulls qualified.

The Americans are a lot further down the calving ease road than we are. Indeed, some of them are concerned that birth weights have already been pushed too low.

The blog from The Midland Bull Test, in Columbus, Montana, which performance tests 1100 bulls – mainly Angus and Hereford – from across America reckons that a cow should be able to deliver without assistance a calf which is 7% of her own body weight. That means a 600kg cow should calve a 42kg calf.

The long-term trend in North America towards lower and lower birth weights has often resulted in calves which weigh below 30kg. These ultra low birth weight calves may be born easily, but are delicate and never catch up.

Plus, the females that are kept for breeding end up being smaller. This means that bulls with even lower birth weight EBVs must be used on them, with the result that the next generation of calves are even smaller.

In short, while low birth weight bulls are fine for heifers, to maximise returns at sale, mature cows should be mated with something stronger.

Something commercial breeders may wish to know is what effect using a different breed of bull would have on calving ease in their own herds. My own experience is that the two biggest factors in calving ease are the size of the unborn calf relative to the size of the mother and the calf’s muscularity.

No data is available on the latter, however, in Ireland, the ICBF whole herd performance recording programme has calculated that at birth the average Charolais calf weighs 49kg, Simmental 44.5kg, Limousin 43.5kg, Hereford 44.5kg and Angus 37.5kg. At weaning, the weights were 272kg, 266kg, 245kg, 220kg and 231kg, respectively.

This programme, which started in 2016, recorded 16,416 animals from 600 pedigree breeders who own 8000 cows, so the data set is the best we have. Because of the commonality of many of the bulls used, the figures shouldn’t be too different here and will get more accurate in time.

For the first time in some years, I went to the Charolais bull sale at Stirling. When the Charolais breed was brought into UK in the 1960s, our local market at Reston was the first to have a Charolais suckled calf sale.

Although we take their size for granted now, we thought then that they were gigantic. They were a great success on our Angus cross Shorthorn cows which weighed around 450kg. We had to up our calving game and had to buy a calf puller, but the sale prices more than made up for the inconvenience.

Show buyers flocked to Reston. Primestock winners were much less extreme than they are now and three times, once with an Angus and twice with Charolais calves, we had the highest price in the country.

Apart from ET recipients, we don’t have cross-bred cows now and we no longer have a Charolais bull. Nevertheless, I still have a soft spot for the breed and thought the bulls at Stirling were excellent.

It interested me that the highest ranked bull for calving ease was +17. The highest ranked Angus two weeks previously was +5.6 – so I wonder, had both bulls been used in the same herd, which would have given the least bother at calving.

Daniel Mushrush’s Red Angus cattle are top quality. Their beef may soon enter Britain at a moderate price. He doesn’t think much of ours. Has he got it all wrong?

Or, are we like the proud mother who, as she watched the soldiers march past, remarked that 'they’re a’ oot o’ step but oor Jock'.