With just a few local shows left in the season, we were delighted to take the Limousin championship at Turriff Show with our French-bred cow Ubonie. Her bull calf, Emslies Frenchman, by Wilodge Vantastic, also won the best Limousin calf class. Our two year old heifer Derryguile Danita also won her class, while in the Charolais classes, our young cow with bull calf at foot, Balnuith Candy stood second in her class.

In the commercial carcass competition a Limousin cross heifer bred at Kinknockie and sired by our senior stock bull Saphir won the champion carcass after being sold as a calf at foot last spring 2009. Owner was George W Cameron from Huntly. The heifer’s dam was a Welsh bred heifer which came from a regular supply of heifers bought in every year which are bulled and sold on.

Adding to our team of stock sires is the recently purchased Tamhorn Dynamite from Danny and Jane Wyllie, Tamworth, Staffordshire. Purchased for 13,000gns at the British Blue sale in Carlisle this month, Dynamite is by the noted sire and winner of countless breed and interbreed championships Ballygrange Alex and is out of the Baron daughter Tamhorn Winifred, who is a daughter of Norbreck Kitty. With a carcass weight figure of +22 and a carcass yield index of +15 he is sure to make a great addition to the commercial operation. We look forward to using him on some of our crossbred cows.

Tamhorn Dynamite

All the build up for the May Carlisle Limousin sale was certainly worth it this month as we celebrated one of the best day’s trading in Carlisle, averaging 10,000gns for four bulls and a second top price of 26,000gns for one of our black bulls.

Our sale leader, Emslies Black Empire, a February 2009-born son of our 25,000gns stock bull Bailea Black BMW out of the Ronick Jalopy daughter Shannas Polly, had previously stood reserve junior and reserve overall champion the night before under judge David Work, before being knocked down for a new Black Limousin record of 26,000gns to pedigree producer Albert Howie, Knock Limousins, Stuartfield, Aberdeenshire. We wish Albert the very best of luck with his purchase and look forward to seeing calves on the ground by him.

The other Black bull in the line up, Emslies Black Enigma, stood third in his junior class to Black Empire and then went on to sell for 6800gns to Andrew Proctor for his Swarlands herd, Morpeth, Northumberland. Enigma is again by BMW and is out of the Domino daughter Ballymoney Violet.

From left to right Emslies Empire and Emslies Enigma

Of the red bulls forward, we sold the third prize Emslies Dracula, a September 2008-born son of Samy out of Ballymony Kim. With a muscle score of +6.5 and a beef value of +35, he sold to The Crofters Commission for 4000gns. Following that, we sold Emslies Dashing, an October 2008-born son of our senior stock bull Saphir out of the Sympa daughter Emslies Allheart. Having stood second to the intermediate champion from Haltcliffe, he went on to sell for 4500gns to George Neil, Mindrum, Northumberland.

We would like to wish all our purchasers the very best with their bulls and look forward to hearing how their progeny progress.

Emslies Black Empire

With the Carlisle Limousin sale just round the corner, we have pleasure in loading pictures of the bulls entered for the sale (30th April, 1st May 2010). This year’s team will include black bulls by the 25,000gns Bailea Black BMW, as well as six red bulls by Saphir, Hartsideanew Argos and Samy.

For more details please visit the For Sale section of the site

Line up of red bulls for sale Carlisle May 2010

High health status embryos from one of Scotland’s leading Limousin herds have been exported to Norway in what is hoped to be the first of many such deals.

The five embryos from Harry Emslie’s herd, Mintlaw, Peterhead, Aberdeen, are by the powerful French sire President out of Emslies Allheart, a Sympa daughter out of one of the herd’s foundation females, Heathlands Sweetheart. They were bought by pedigree breeder Thor Skaget for an undisclosed amount.

The shipment has been handled by Sheila Eggleston of Eggsport who says: “This is an exciting time for Limousin genetics. Norway has incredibly tight animal health status regulations so exporting embryos to this country is a great achievement for Harry Emslie and the breed.”

Mr Emslie adds: “The purchase came about following an interest in one of Allheart’s sons Emslies Dashing having seen a picture of him on our website www.emslieslivestock.com.” Dashing is one of a team of about eight bulls scheduled for the Society sale in Carlisle in May.  

Previous embryo sales from the herd have included a consignment sent to Australia.

Emslies Allheart

The only son of the100,000gns Haltcliffe Vermount is now being marketed on Semen Store. Having purchased Procters Cavalier from Carlisle October 2008 for 28,000gns, he is proving to be a great herd sire at Emslies, leaving correct, muscular calves with great growth rates. Semen is priced at £25 a straw with £50 royalty. Please contact us to arrange a viewing of Procters Cavalier bred calves at Emslies.

Emslies Delma

Ronick Telma

Due to the huge success and demand for black claves from our current stock bull Bailea Black BMW, the decision was taken at Stirling to acquire another black Limousin bull. Admired for his exceptional fleshing qualities, length, back end and correctness in his legs and feet, Goldies Black Denver was purchased for 12,000gns.

Bred in Bruce Goldie’s herd, Denver is a May 2008-born son of Ravageur son Normande Arapaho who is out of Normande Nerys. He is out of Goldies Toronoto who is a daughter of Polled Black Powder out of SLVL Dutchess Olivia, a cow greatly admired for exceptional power and muscularity by Harry and Lynwen. Denver has a beef value of +46 and a muscle score of +6.1; he will no doubt be a tremendous asset to the herd.

This year’s Royal Welsh Show has to have been one of the highlights of our showing career, if not of our lives. Many think we’re crazy hauling a show team all the way from Aberdeen to Builth Wells, but it’s home for Lynwen and we’ve always enjoyed the show. The standard of cattle at the Welsh is exceptional so when you do win it makes it even more worthwhile.

Judged by Irish breeder William Smith of the Millbrook herd, we won the cow class with Ballymoney Veronica, our five year old cow bought privately in 2004 from Angus Mcdowell, Co Wicklow. She is by Highlander, and out of Ballymoney Noisette, who carries Tarvis and Dauphin bloodlines in her pedigree and was shown with her February 2009 born Saphir-sired heifer calf, Emslies Eryl (named after Lynwen’s mum).

We were then tapped out as female champion and then breed champion, a complete delight for us both. Commenting on Veronica, William Smith said: “This was an outstanding working cow, full of quality and style, with a great calf at foot. She has great length, top line, bottom line and a good udder of milk.” 

But the best bit of the day was still to come as we stepped out in an incredibly tough interbreed championship under judge and commercial producer Bryan Jones, Brecon, who was equally as impressed with her and decided to make her his overall interbreed champion. 

He commented to the crowd: “Ballymoney Veronica was a stand-out animal, she owned the ring from the minute she walked in to it – she really has the X-Factor presence. She was wide right through, well fleshed, had a good top, was excellent on her legs and has a great calf at foot.”

Further awards came our way with Veronica as we teamed up with David Cormack and Gaynor McDowell’s senior bull Greenhill Viper to take the interbreed pairs competition winning line up as well as being part of the interbreed team of five competition later on in the week.

We’ve had a fantastic trade for commercial cattle recently and following a great run at Carlisle Limousin sale, we were on good form this week with the commercials setting a new centre record at Thainstone for a Charolais cross heifer suckling an ET bred registered bull calf by the French sire Samy out of Pennys Tess.

The mother of this bull has bred exceptionally well for us has great figures to match. She is currently ranked No. 2 in the UK on milk and was the dam of the 10,000gns Emslies Celt who stood reserve intermediate champion at last week’s bull sale.

The May sale of Limousin bulls at Carlisle this year proved a profitable one for Emslies Livestock , with the four we took averaging 5300gns and Emslies Celt taking a first prize ticket and the reserve intermediate championship under judge Martin Conway, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Selling for 10,000 gns, Emslies Celt is by Vivaldi - one of the successful AI sires used at Emslies - out of Pennys Tess who has been a prolific breeder for us. Celt sported a beef value of +37, he sold to Mr J Thompson, Fife.

Our next highest priced bull, Emslies CLK was of the same breeding with a tremendous beef value of +41, while Emslies Crownjewels, another of the same breeding  and this time with a beef value of + 35.

This year’s Royal Highland Show was a great success for the Emslies show team and culminated in a male and reserve overall championship win for our stock bull Hartsideanew Argos. Argos was bought in Carlisle in October 2006 for 8000gns and has already made a great impact on the herd. He is by the Ronick Member son Greenwell Ronick and is out of the Jockey daughter Eden Suzzie. He won his class and then went on to take the male championship followed by the reserve overall breed championship. He was also part of the winning interbreed Team of Five.

Interest in UK Limousin genetics has gathered further momentum this week with what is believed to be the first ever export of Limousin embryos to Australia, eight in total, by Hexham-based Eggs-Port Ltd on behalf of Emslies Livestock.

“We are getting enquiries from all over the world from breeders interested in upgrading their herds with top-quality British genetics,” says Eggs-Port’s Sheila Eggleston.

The consignment of embryos shipped to Australia this week includes eight from two of the top cows in the Emslies Limousin herd. This is believed to be the first export of Limousin embryos to Australia and the first export of embryos of any breed to Australia for two years.

The embryos are from the cows Ballymoney Noisette and Wilodge Ritzy, and were fertilised with semen from Wilodge Tonka, Beefbreeder Champion at the Royal and Royal Welsh Shows in 2002 and later sold for 30,000gns, and the leading French sire, Celestin.

Ballymoney Noisette is the dam of Ballymoney Veronica, a winner of six major interbreed championships in 2006, while Wilodge Ritzy was breed champion at the Royal Show in 2002 and was purchased by us for 20,000gns as the foundation cow for the Emslies herd.