Whitebreds will be first in Canada

PUREBRED embryos from one of the UK’s oldest beef breeds, the Whitebred Shorthorn, have been exported to Canada for the first time and will be used to establish the country’s first herd.

Clayton Berg has been investing in Galloway cattle genetics in Alberta, Canada, and he chose the Whitebred Shorthorn for its traits, which he believes will produce a grass-fed, commercial- cross cow for the future.

With potential export restrictions because of the Schmallenberg virus, Mr Berg took advantage of purchasing four Whitebred embryos from Gordon Jackson, of Blackburn, Newcastleton, Scotland, which he intends to implant into recipient females in August for calves to be born next May and June.

The Whitebred Shorthorn, which originates in the North of England, has traditionally been bred to produce bulls to cross with the Galloway cow to give hardy Blue Grey calves.

“My interest in Celtic breed cattle began when I started looking for something that would do more for less,” said Mr Berg, who runs a small-scale, 200-acre grass operation in east central Alberta with his wife, Crystal, and their children, Logan, Brekyn, Finley, and Maddyn.

“I wasn’t raised on a ranch, so I had no biased opinions or prejudices when it came to my initial cattle breed selection. I simply researched some university testing, spoke to lots of people who raised cattle about what they fed, what they felt was appropriate shelter, when they calved and then took all that information and compared it to what I felt to be my major selection criteria of an animal,” said Mr Berg, whose other business interest is in oilfield fluid transport. He is also a director of the Alberta Galloway Association.

“I kept ending up with a Celtic breed of cattle. I feel the Angus and Beef Shorthorn have gone too far in their attempt to chase the continental breeds and developed far to many terminal traits.

“I also needed the added benefit of hair coat in a country where we have temperatures from zero to minus 50C six months of the year.”

As he calculated winter feed to be 70 per cent of the cost of owning a cow in their part of Canada, Galloway seemed the logical choice.

He said: “Why the Whitebred Shorthorn? I feel that the best qualities possessed by my Galloways are of the maternal variety, so I set about looking around for a good cross for my Galloways.”

Gordon Jackson

This search took him the better part of a year and ended with the Whitebred Shorthorn.

He spoke to the then Whitebred Shorthorn Association chairman, Adrian Wheelwright, who convinced him that he was on the right track.

After contact with Sheila Eggleston, of Eggsport, in Hexham, he secured four unsexed embryos. Mr Berg also plans to import semen to AI any heifers produced and flush them for embryo transfer in order to establish the first pure Whitbred Shorthorn herd in Canada.

Mr Berg added: “I really believe that the future of the beef industry lies in the rediscovery of how well these moderate-framed, old fashioned, grass-fed, easydoing types of beef cattle truly perform, with the key being low input in a time of record high grain prices that look to being here for the long haul.

“I’ll take my little bramble- eating, rosehip-chewing Celtic cows any day.”

In the UK, native British breeds are becoming increasingly popular because of the quality of their meat, their ease of management and their suitability for environmental schemes.

Mr Wheelwright, of Forres, Morayshire, said: “We’re hoping that we can persuade people that this breed has a bright future, but we desperately need more breeders – 31 is too few – and the breed is worth much more than that.

“It does a wonderful job on other breeds, such as the Galloway, to produce the Blue Grey, but we don’t just have one market to fill.

“The breed needs bringing out of the locker and we need to widen the use of the Whitebred Shorthorn, which produces a great cross with Highland, Aberdeen Angus, Welsh Black, Simmental as well as Holsteins and Ayrshires.”