EDMONTON, Alta. – A Scottish farmer who repopulated his Shorthorn herd with Alberta cattle after the foot-and-mouth crisis hit his country now has the foundation of a good cattle herd.
“We now have an excellent herd of cattle,” said Donald Biggar, who was in Edmonton last week to judge the Shorthorn show at Farmfair International.
“I’m very, very pleased with the animal. There is a level of uniformity which is very pleasing,” said Biggar, who bought 200 embryos from five Alberta cattle herds over two years ago to rebuild his herd.
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He had imported a Shorthorn bull from Alberta producers four years earlier, but just as the calves were born, foot-and-mouth disease wiped out the herd.
Biggar had remembered the calves he had seen during his earlier tour of Canadian farms, and made the decision to repopulate with Canadian cattle.
The combination of bloodlines from five different herds has given Biggar enough variety of genetics to build and expand for many years.
It also gives Biggar an opportunity to tap into the resurgence of interest in Shorthorn cattle in the United Kingdom. A Shorthorn cross cow is now becoming the standard in Britain.
“At all the sales there is a full ringside of keen bidders and it appears to be an insatiable appetite.”
After foot-and-mouth and bovine spongiform encephalopathy caused a crisis in the British cattle industry, many producers moved to a more functional and efficient brood cow, Biggar said.
Producers are looking for cattle that calve easily and can be productive for years.
Producers also learned the importance of farm-based quality assurance programs.
“Producers now pay more attention to quality,” said Biggar, who added many producers joined branded beef programs to promote premium quality beef from farm assured conditions.
