Toplines and Tales

Kayley speaks to one of the UK's top young stock women, Steph Dick.

As a highly talented cattle dresser, Steph has worked with the family's Ronnick Limousin herd, as well as starting her own herds of Limousin and Angus. We hear about her awards for stock judging, as well as a new and already fruitful venture into pedigree sheep.

Delighted and honoured to have Neil Massie as a guest this week.

In the world of cattle the name of Blelack needs no introduction. In over 40 years in the Angus breed Neil, along with a few other select names, worked tirelessly to bring the cattle back from near extinction to what we have as a breed in UK today. We hear about some bulls that shaped the Blelack herd as well as taking through the successes with Charolais cattle, his dabble in sheep and, more latterly the shorthorn breed through his son Graeme.

This week Kayley Kennedy speaks to well known stockman Ali Jackson.

Not just bringing out cattle for one of the top British Blue breeders in UK, he is an experienced shepherd successfully running a number of breeds. As with our podcast last week, Ali is another Scot who has scooped the interbreed group of threes at the Royal Welsh show, along with hauls of silverware from the Highland and a recent run at the Yorkshire. Now one of the top breeders of Spotted Dutch Texels, we hear about the merits of that breed which is rapidly gaining traction in UK.

This week we chat sheep to Gregor Ingram from Logie Durno in Aberdeenshire, one of Europe's largest pedigree ram breeders.

As well as breeding Charollais sheep for over 4 decades, the Ingram family have expanded their business which now runs 4,500 ewes and sells upwards of 800 rams per year. With nine different pure breeds including a couple of unique hybrid composites, Gregor talks us through the trials and tribulations of running an outfit this size, and how most of their rams are sold privately and how their stock majors on carcass traits.

Kayley Kennedy chats with top young sheep breeder Jack Buckle from Cumbria who, along with his family have recently made their mark in a number of breeds.  As well as selling Swaledales to 13,000, he has regularly made headlines in the Beltex breed, topping out at £30,000. His recent success with Blue Faced Leicester's outlines what a smart shepherd this young man is.

As well as scooping up Northern Sheep Farmer of the Year award, the flock will once again be laying down markers at next week's Great Yorkshire Show.

In our new series speaking to the younger generation, I would like to introduce guest host, Kayley Kennedy. This week she is speaking to top young cattle showman James Nisbet about how he got into showing, and his passion for the job. He includes a couple of animals he says the best he’s ever seen, as well as the highlights in his showing career to date. He discusses sourcing his show calves and how that perfect beast is getting more and more scarce! For all his successes, James admits he is always learning, and the older great stockmen still keep a few well guarded secrets!

Professor John Robinson started working in animal research at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen in the late 60s. During his time he worked with the very first embryo transfer, Maedi Visna, feotal growth and nutrition in sheep, as well as lending a hand to the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep.

In this fascinating and amusing podcast we get to hear about his life, in his own words, as well as advice to breeders on the protein and nutrition.

This week we have two of the worlds most famous cattlemen on one show. Dave Nichols, from Nichols Farms, the largest Angus breeder in the Mid West gets interviewed by Glen Klippenstein from GK Farms, one of the worlds leading Hereford breeders, with Dr Bob Hope as the host presenter. This is a must-listen episode where we not only hear about how the greats go about their business, and also a lesson on life in general, but mainly because these two will make you laugh!

This week we take a short look at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh.

After briefly walking through the history of the society and the show, we speak with CEO Alain Laidlaw, about modern developments and the upcoming Royal Highland Showcase.

We chat this week to John Elliot Senior and Junior about one of the most pioneering Angus herds in the UK. From importing the initial foundation cow from Canada to trading genetics across the Atlantic, Rawburn grew on the back of sound recording tactics, to supplying over 125 bulls per year to repeat buyers. We also hear about the latest investments in technology for monitoring feed efficiency, something John believes will be part of the future of breeding stock worldwide.