Guy Green of Bottisham, Cambridge, has been elected to the British Limousin Cattle Society (BLCS) Council of Management as a National Member and will serve the customary three year term of office. The election, which was confirmed at the Society’s AGM held within the Royal Welsh Show in July, sees Mr Green take the position vacated by retiring past BLCS Chairman Jim Bloom, Driffield.
Along with his father John, and brother, William, Guy Green farms 2,000 acres of owned and tenanted land either side of the City of Cambridge. Over and above the Greensons pedigree Limousin herd, the family runs an arable enterprise with winter wheat, spring barley and oilseed rape.
Commenting, Guy Green said: “The Limousin continues to build upon its position as the UK’s most numerical beef breed due to its delivery of performance and profitability for commercial beef producers. The marketplace and production environment are changing, and I see the need for beef producers to be even more efficient and to produce the right carcase to meet demand. As a breed, we cannot rest on our laurels and must continue with a programme of all-round improvement on both maternal and terminal traits. I believe Limousin is the best placed breed to take advantage of a changing industry environment and of the many developing technologies.”
The Greensons name is well known within the Limousin breed and particularly through the 1991 homebred sire Greensons Gigolo who has since had some 1,500 calves registered in the BLCS herdbook. In 2011, the Greensons herd was recognised by EBLEX as the Most Improved Herd of British Limousin cattle for the year.
The Greensons herd started in the late 1970s grading up animals and developed a reputation for trying things a little different. Following the export of a bull to America, the stock sire Titan was imported and it was he that sired Greensons Gigolo, putting the Greensons name on the map. An early look was taken at the potential in polled Limousins and some years later, along with fellow Cambridgeshire breeder David Granger, the first black Limousins were imported from Canada.
Passionate about Limousin cattle, Guy Green’s aim is to build upon the present 25 cow herd, with a concentration continuing on black and polled genetics. The herd at the moment is about 80% black with a small number of polled red Limousins, and this is an area that Guy sees as having ‘incredible potential’. With pretty much every animal in the herd going back to Surprise, the dam of the famous sire Greensons Gigolo, as a result Guy says: “We have stretchy females that are easy to calve and milk really well; their calves hit the ground full of beans and just keep growing, traits which I believe are very important.”
Good figures and performance recording is something the Greens place emphasis on with the feeling that the more information breeders have at their disposal the better the breeding decisions that can be made. The herd has established and maintained a high health position, and has meant that the Greens were in a position to be involved in the first export of British black Limousin embryos to New Zealand in late 2012.
With a degree in Animal Management, experience of marketing and public relations whilst working for a period in London, and with hands-on breeding experience, Guy Green brings lots to offer to the work of the BLCS. “I care deeply about the Limousin breed. Being a part of the Council, helping the future of the breed, is very exciting and has always been a personal ambition. I’ve already been involved with several Society projects and am very excited about the new developments and especially BASCO, the Society’s on-line herdbook database. I think the potential of this as an online management tool for breeders and potential customers is almost limitless and is the way forward.”
Addendum. The following BLCS representatives were re-elected to Council at the AGM:
- North Wales & North West Midlands Representative PETER KIRTON
- Scottish Representative HARRY EMSLIE
- South Wales & Mid-West Representative DELANA DAVIES
- National Representative JAMES COOPER
