BCCS September Newsletter 2022

eeding Charolais for hundreds of years – they don’t always
use the easiest calvers or growthiest animals exclusively.”
The Northern Irish regional winner was William Whyte with
his Innisrush herd, with an increase of 6.9 points and a yearend
SRI average of 50.3. The 25-head Innisrush herd is based
in Portglenone,
Co. Antrim, and
William expects
an increase in
numbers to 30
this year.
The herd was
established
in 2003 with
William’s late
father John
Whyte, and the
family became
members of the
society later
that year. The
family originally
operated a
suckler cow &
sheep enterprise
William Whyte and his son John
consisting of 80
cows, of which
7 were pedigree
Charolais, 5 were pedigree Simmental, and the remainder
were commercial cross cows put to a Charolais bull. Upon
John’s passing in 2013, William began to work full-time offfarm
and sold the majority of their stock. He did not part with
his Charolais cows however, and kept them on a hobby basis
where they served as the foundation of the current herd.
The Whyte family have been performance-recording their
cattle since the herd was first established, and William makes
extensive use of EBVs and Selection Indexes when selecting
sires for his cows. He said “I don’t have a stock bull, so I select
all AI sires to match the cows I’m mating them with. In the last
few years I’ve been focusing on high-accuracy Calving Ease
Direct, and 200- & 400-day weight EBVs.”
William went on to add “I’m most focused on breeding a good
female line with good maternal ability, plenty of size and
shape, easy calving with plenty of milk, and correct in feet &
legs with lots of style.”
“I try to produce bulls that the commercial farmer wants, i.e.
easy calving and quick growing with plenty of style. As I work
off-farm, my cows need to be able to calve themselves with
lively calves to get up and suck to give them a good start.”
Finally, the English regional winners were Brian and George
Nancekivell with their Lovistone herd in Okehampton, Devon,
with an improvement of 5.1 points and a year-end average SRI
of 41.0.
A family business, the farm was originally established in 1935
by Will Nancekivell, who then passed the ownership on to his
nephew Brian in 1963. Since then, the farm has grown into a
1150-acre mixed cattle, sheep, and arable enterprise and is
now run by Brian, his son Robert, and his grandson George.
The current 30-head Charolais herd was established in 2001,
following re-stocking after the foot-and-mouth outbreak. The
foundation cows were purchased from the Clayknight herd,
and the first stock bull was Penhole Samaritan. Alongside the
Charolais, the Nancekivell family also keeps a commercial
herd of 60 mainly Saler cows which are put to the Charolais
bull, and they also took on a pedigree Red Ruby Devon herd in
2020.
The Nancekivell family began Performance Recording in
2002, shortly after establishing their Charolais herd. George
explained “We bought our second stock bull, Moynton Bertie,
on the basis of his good EBVs. When we got him home,
we weren’t sure if he would perform like his predecessor
Penhole Samaritan. However, when it came to weighing
Bertie’s progeny, the growth rate in his calves were superior to
Samaritan’s – for us, this was evidence on a practical level that
backed the theory behind BREEDPLAN.”
George Nancekivell pictured with Ben Harman
He went on to add “BREEDPLAN has been a great marketing
tool, people at the farm gate now expect to see a set of EBVs.
Recording for the years we have gives us more confidence
in the bulls that we are selling. In the past, people were put
off by the ‘hard calving’ of the Charolais breed but more and
more people are coming back to it. We have repeat custom
who only want to see bulls with positive Calving Ease Direct
and 400- & 600-day weight EBVs.”
The Nancekivell family believe appearance is very important
when selecting stock, saying “We like an animal with a good
head that carries width right back through her body. When
selecting a stock bull, we focus more on his dam’s line – in
getting the females right, we like to think the rest will sort
itself out! The stock bull has to complement our cows; what
we think they lack, we try and correct with the bull. We’re
hoping our current stock bull Cove Parkranger will inject his
length and size into our cows, and his neat head and clean
body should leave us with some tidy females with good breed
character.”
Alongside selecting the best stock bull for the cows, George
also uses AI on the heifers to expand the diversity within the
herd. He explained “We believe using AI on our heifers has
improved our Self-Replacing Index. We select the very best
figured bulls we can find when selecting for AI. In recent years,
we have gone back to Blelack Digger, which has helped us
leapfrog our average indexes.”
- No bull works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet - 35
September newsletter 22.indd 35 16/09/2022 14:59:19