A SEMEN marketing partnership has been agreed between the East Yorkshire based Stabiliser Cattle Company and Cogent Breeding.

Richard Fuller,technical director of the Beef Improvement Group (BIG), said providing greater availability of Stabiliser genetics through artificial insemination was the logical next step in establishing a low-cost, sustainable beef suckler industry in the UK.

BIG, whose office is at Southburn, near Driffield, has introduced the Stabiliser to the UK over the past 15 years with the aim of providing the option of a more efficient suckler cow type, capable of thriving on low-cost for age-based systems while producing high eating-quality beef.

To date,the breed has been expanding through a network of recorded nucleus breeders working within a multiplier agreement, and with breeders who are upgrading to pure Stabiliser status from their existing cow base.

The move to actively marketed semen in collaboration with Cogentis therefore a significant landmark.

Mr Fuller said: “This agreement with Cogent Breeding builds on BIG’s original ambitions to establish and expand a low-cost, high-value suckler system to improve the competitiveness of beef producers facing higher costs and reduced subsidy support.

“Having established a highly-efficient production base with the Stabiliser, greater availability to the wider industry of some of the top genetics is the next logical step.

“This marketing partnership with Cogent Breeding will give us that opportunity.”

The long-term agreement will see Cogent Breeding exclusively marketing Stabiliser semen in the UK and other specified countries.

The Stabiliser is a composite breed comprising five eighths British breeds and three eighths Continental breeds, combining strong maternaltraits and performance efficiency to offer quality dam line breeding stock.

“We are delighted to have forged this partnership with BIG to market Stabiliser genetics,” says Gareth Scott, beef sales manager with Cogent Breeding. “This will create very important opportunities for commercial beef suckler herds in particular.

“The Stabiliser is geared towards sustainable beef production and the approach taken by BIG to establish proven genetics through robust performance recording is very consistent with Cogent’s own long-term strategy in cattle genetics.”

Three Stabiliser bulls – Weighton Wold Merlin, Givendale Louie and Crugeran Llewelyn – will be available initially from Cogent at prices described as “comparable with premium genetics from other beef breeds”.