Another Strong Year for British Limousins
27/06/08

The British Limousin Cattle Society’s published Annual Report & Accounts to members for 2007 reflects another strong year of performance for the Society and the breed in the UK.

Society Chairman, Aled Edwards

The report, for the year ended 31st December 2007, has been published prior to the Society’s 37th Annual General Meeting due to be held on Tuesday 8th July 2008 at the Calder Room, Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate.

Through 2007 the Society registered 18,384 pedigree calves, breaking the 18,000 mark for a second consecutive year. For the sixth year in a row, membership increased to set a new record figure of 2,595 full members. The report also highlights the 2007 BCMS figures which show that the Limousin breed has maintained its number one beef breed position in the country with over 640,000 Limousin-sired cattle representing a 35% share of the UK’s annual beef sired registrations. This is the twelfth year in a row the Limousin breed has topped the BCMS registration figures and in that period over seven and a half million Limousin sired cattle have been registered.

Performance at the point of sale is a highlight of the report with over £4 Million grossed in pedigree sales in the year and multiple breed and centre records having been set at Carlisle, Brecon and Aberdeen for classes of stock including bulls, maiden heifers and weaned calves. Major show highlights reported in the year include a clean sweep of major interbreed titles at the Royal Show; a similar clean sweep at the Royal Highland; and a historic clean sweep of the seven major titles at the Scottish Winter Fair.

Breeders’ participation in the Society’s Herd Health Initiative is reported as having increased by a further 19% resulting in 25% of all registered Limousin calves being in herds operating within industry-licensed health schemes. The ongoing uptake of the Society’s web enabled herdbook database is also reflected with 70% of all registrations noted as having been received in the year by on-line or telephone means.

This strong overall performance resulted in the Society realising a surplus of £130,159 which was well ahead of budget forecasts. Total income for the year is reported as £844,889, up £6872 on the year. The total level of Society retained funds increased by £130,159 to a new record level of £1,725,341.

In his Chairman’s Report, Aled Edwards, Home Farm, Cilycwm, Llandovery, Chairman of the British Limousin Cattle Society, welcomed the published figures and commended breeders for the level of performance achieved in a year of continued industry challenges. Whilst noting that adjusting to the decoupled support system presented perhaps the biggest and most long term challenge the industry continued to face, Aled Edwards believed that there was a positive future ahead for the British beef producer. He said: “The focus on immediate industry issues must not deflect us from improving our product for the future beef industry. I believe there will be reward for easy care, easy managed, highly efficient cattle that produce a consistent and quality product. The emphasis will be on economic trait efficiency; feed efficiency and feed conversion from grass based systems; high health; and the flexibility to meet a breadth of domestic and export markets.”

Within the Council of Management Report, the Society’s stated aims for 2008, in addition to its core activities, include via its subsidiary Limousin Solutions Limited, the launch of an e-commerce Semenstore site for the automated marketing and sale of Limousin semen; and the roll out of a Limousin Insurance Initiative, under the generic name of Taurus which will see the provision of both fall of hammer sale as well as farm gate insurance package options for vendors and customers.

The British Limousin AGM is being held at the time of the Great Yorkshire Show which is this year celebrating its 150th anniversary. It is the first year of an overall aim of the BLCS to move the AGM, year on year, around the different regions of the United Kingdom.

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