Anticipation is starting to build for the world-famous Stirling bull sales to be held at United Auctions headquarters in Stirling between Sunday 21st and Tuesday 23rd October.
Attracting thousands of visitors from home and abroad the sales are an integral part of the Limousin calendar. Getting underway at 2.30pm on Sunday 21 October the show of bulls will be judged by Mr Robertson who runs the Fodderletter Herd at Ballindalloch, Banffshire. The sale is scheduled to commence at 2pm on Monday 22 October. Leading the way last year, and making the top price of 11,000gns, was the April 2016 born Ronick Mckinley from the Dick family, Mains of Throsk Farm, Stirling.
With a total of 66 bulls catalogued for sale, the strong cohort of cattle offers a superb choice for commercial and pedigree producers alike. A highlight of the parallel sale in 2017 was the robust demand for bulls from commercial producers, a characteristic which has been evident all over the UK at Society sales this year as well. Commercial producers are homing in even more on the Limousin breed which has focused and worked on carcase traits, maternal traits and feed efficiency. These are the core economic drivers and there continues to be recognition of the value this brings by commercial producers. Stirling will no doubt also see a focus on bulls with good easy calving figures, another key driver at Limousin sales for some time.
In what continues to be an uncertain time for the industry commercial producers coming to buy will see market ready genetics on display left right and centre. They have been very willing to confidently invest in Limousin as the ‘go to’ breed, a trend unlikely to abate given the challenges of profitability and efficiencies.
