We aim for our Aberdeen-Angus to be structurally sound, to calve easily and to have a short gestation period. We aim for high 200- and 400-day growth rates so animals have less days on farm. This coincides with feed conversion rates being best when young and declining as cattle age. This also works well with us selling most stock directly off farm.

We breed and select for good fertility traits, generally calving at two years of age but also keep an eye on muscle and fat depth to have a good all-round animal. We take the performance recording very seriously as the more accurate the data collected is, the more reliable it is when using it as a predictor of performance.

With the assistance of Breedplan performance data over a 10-year period from 2010, we increased the 400-day weight of our young bulls by 67kg, while reducing gestation period and birth weight. We are looking forward to see how much further we can improve the performance of our herd over the next 10 years.