Moving the sale date from early May to Thursday 12th February certainly did not deter buyers at the Ervie Herefords Spring Bull Sale held annually at Mains of Airies farm near Stranraer. With purchased bulls able to remain at Airies until the end of April and deferred payment until then, many buyers readily took up this option.

   This is the 6th consecutive year that the Douglas family have held their on-farm sale, offering unpampered, fertile, sound bulls, straight from the kale field and sold in their working clothes. The bulls promote the consistent easy-fleshing and high maternal Line One Hereford genetics used in the large Ervie herd. Reputation of the bulls continues to grow and 13 of the 20 buyers at the end of the day were regular repeat customers.

   After a “mince & tatties” lunch, the sale kicked off at 1p.m. with groups of 3, 4 or 5 bulls sold together and targeted towards large modern dairy units running sweeper bulls after their AI programme. Many of these groups were light birth weight bulls with most buyers prioritising calving ease as part of their purchasing criteria.

   The single bulls following the groups continued on a sound commercial trade with auctioneer Harry Begg from Dumfries Mart finding ready bidders easily as the dairy units sought to fill their requirements. Midway through the sale offering came the bulls with high-end performance data. First of these was Ervie Advance 131696. Sired by Achiever 91151H and from the Barbara family, he boasted the highest actual adjusted 400day weight and a balanced set of EBV’s and looked well worth the money selling at £2600 to I Skea, Inverurie for his pedigree Hereford herd.

   Creating a flurry of bidding was Ervie Advance 131688. Also sired by Achiever 91151H and from the important cow Ervie Oystergirl V299. This bull entered the ring with equal top Teminal and Self Replacing indexes of +33 and +41 respectively, and sold at £4000 to repeat buyer, Marcus Maxwell, New Galloway, to work as a sire of Black Baldies on his Angus based cows.

   Very next bull in the ring was favourite of many, Ervie Advance 121588. Sired by Achiever 91149H and from the Beauty family, he shared top rating on +33 and +41 for Terminal and Self Replacing Indexes. He quickly reached £4500 in the bidding and sold to John Hamilton, Dunbar to be used as “Black Baldie maker” for his Angus based suckler herd.

   As well as strong support from local Dumfries & Galloway farmers, bulls were sold to Yorkshire, Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire, Scottish Borders, Perthshire, Lothian and Northern Ireland.

   Volume buyers at the sale were Dourie Farming Ltd. taking 13 bulls, Glenapp Estate taking 6 and new customer, Lundie Farming Ltd bought 3 for their new dairy enterprise near Dundee. Twenty-seven of the 42 bulls sold went for use in dairy herds with the remaining 15 going to beef suckler herds.

   Afterwards, John Douglas commented that he was thankful for the kind weather and grateful to everyone who had travelled from near and far to attend the sale. Comments on the standard of the bulls had been very favourable with both the auctioneer and many buyers saying it was the best set of bulls produced to date. “Next year we aim to have 60 plus bulls.”

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Saturday 3^rd May saw a crowd in excess of seventy people attend the Ervie Spring Bull sale held by the Douglas family at Mains of Airies, near Stranraer, in southwest Scotland. The annual on-farm sale has now reached its fifth consecutive year, having begun in 2010 as a means to promote the easy-fleshing and high maternal Line One breeding behind the bulls, but also offering commercial bull customers a source of naturally reared, unforced bulls, in good working condition.

 This year saw an increase in the number of bulls offered with forty going under the hammer of auctioneer Harry Begg from Cumberland and Dumfriesshire Farmers Mart. Trade was buoyant, with all forty bulls offered finding ready buyers and ranged from a high of £4,500 to a low of £1,600. Although local Wigtownshire farmers were out in force, bulls were also dispersed to Argyll in the west, Dundee to the east and Northumberland, Yorkshire and Cumbria to the south.

 Topping the trade at £4,500 was Ervie Advance 121493. Sired by the imported bull Achiever 91151H and out of Ervie Oystergirl E992, he also boasted both the top Terminal Index of 34 and the top Maternal Index of 42. Buying him to take home to Northumberland was repeat buyer and Black Baldie producer Simon Bainbridge, a former beef monitor farmer for northeast England.

 Second bull in the ring was Advance 121503 reaching the joint second top price of £4000. This one was the favourite of many on the day and sold to established local Black Baldie producer Robert Parker to add to his strong battery of Ervie Hereford sires. Sired by Achiever 91149H and from the young cow, Ervie Carol Lily F1113, he boasted a well-balanced set of EBV’s with a Terminal Index of 25 and a Maternal Index of 32.

 Matching the £4000 price tag and selling to David and Maggie Kelly from Cumbria, was Advance 121462. This light birth-weight bull was also sired by Achiever 91151H and out of Ervie Dowager F1030. He sold with a Terminal Index of 26 and Maternal Index of 33 and goes for use on heifers from the Kelly’s famous Limousin herd, but may later be used on some of their pedigree Hereford females. As recent newcomers to the Hereford breed, the Kelly’s were impressed by the Line One females at Ervie and have purchased 46 pedigree Hereford females and an imported Line One stock sire from the Ervie herd over the past year in order to buy into the Line One genetics.

 Volume buyer at the sale was Rory Christie for Dourie Farming Co. near Newton Stewart, buying nineteen bulls. New customer Charlie Russell for Glenapp Estate, South Ayrshire, bought eight.

 At the end of the day, twenty-nine of the bulls on offer were sold to dairy producers whilst the remaining eleven bulls were sold for use in beef suckler herds. In general, the beef suckler producers who purchased, were interested in those bulls showing high yearling growth and good maternal trait EBV’s, whilst calving ease and docility was definitely high on the agenda of most of the dairy producers.

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The fourth Ervie Spring Bull Sale held by the Douglas family at Mains of Airies near Stranraer last Saturday saw fifteen bulls with strong imported Line One influence scattered well across the UK. Buyers were from Argyll, Ayrshire, Cheshire, Northumberland, Northern Ireland and locally Wigtownshire.

Top price of the day was £4600 for Ervie L1 Achiever 111394 selling to pedigree and commercial producer, Robert Armstrong, East Fourstones, Hexham. This was a high maternal, straight Line One Hereford bull with both sire and dam imported from the USA.

Another top prospect with good figures and high maternal, Ervie Advance 111395 was next in the ring, selling at £4300 and was the choice of Black Baldie breeder, Robert Parker, Drumdow, Stranraer.

Repeat buyer and traditional upland suckler producer, Jim McKenna from Gass Farm, near Newton Stewart went to £4000 for Ervie Advance 111334. This heavyweight bull with light birth weight and a balanced set of EBV’s was also high in all maternal traits.

Commenting after the sale, herd owner John Douglas was philosophical about the bull trade.

“Although both our average and top price has dropped slightly on the year, I think that this sale places our cattle completely in tune with the commercial sector of the beef industry. Demand was high and farmers knew exactly what they were looking for, but upland stock farmers have been hammered financially by the long spell of bad weather with high extra feed costs and also higher than normal stock losses. I think this tempered the trade but we’ll reap our reward another day.”

With the bulls outwintered and presented very naturally, potential buyers are provided with a full set of EBV’s plus birth weight, scrotal measurement and adjusted 200 & 400 day weights as well as some background information on the sire and dam including a rating for teats.

Whilst suckler cow breeders were after the higher performance bulls with high maternal background it was obvious that the dairy farmers present were looking for a more compact bull with heavier muscling but a light birth weight, and were willing to battle for them. Gordon Service bid to £3900 for Ervie Advance 111399 for his Baltersan dairy herd near Newton Stewart.

Last word from seller John Douglas.

“I think the farmers used the data provided well. The right bulls went to the right herds. That bodes well for the future.”

15 bulls sold to an average of £2,833.

Local commercial beef producers attended the 3rd Ervie Spring Bull Sale in some force and  made all the running to purchase the top American Line One sired Hereford bulls on offer. With auctioneer Harry Begg from Dumfries in full swing and approaching 60 people around the ringside, the days top price of £6,500 was for Advance 101219, selling to renowned Black Baldie enthusiast, Robert Parker, Kirkcolm. This growthy, easy-fleshing bull was the heaviest in the group and sported a well balanced set of EBV’s and Hereford Terminal Index of 29 and Hereford Self Replacing Index of 36.

He is sired by the imported Line One sire, L1 Achiever 851A and from one of the herds top breeding cows.

Buying 2 bulls for use on his Aberdeen - Angus based commercial herd was Marcus Maxwell, New Galloway. His first at £5000 was for Advance 101229, sired by L1 Achiever 851A and with a Hereford Terminal Index of 33 and a Hereford Self Replacing Index of 42. Mr Maxwell’s second choice was Advance 101215 sired by L1 Achiever 854A at £3500.

First time buyer, William Moses, Newton Stewart went to £4500 for Advance 101208 for use on Aberdeen - Angus heifers. This one was also sired by L1 Achiever 851A.

The 12 bulls sold from £6500 to £1800 and levelled at £3333 with all but one going to repeat buyers.

The small group of maiden pedigree Hereford heifers sold to £1600 for Snowdrop 101207, sired by L1 Achiever 882A. Buyers were long time Hereford enthusiasts, Ben & Elsie Welsh, Auchenleck.

Highlight of the selection of commercial cattle on offer was £1100 paid for a pen of strong Black Baldie steers weighing an average of 547kg and going to last years steer buyer, J McIntosh, Stranraer.

Black Baldie heifers sold to £1150 to another of last years buyers, Nevil Nelson, Girvan.

Other buyers driving the trade were, J Kerr, Galston, T Gormley, Kirkcolm, J McKenna, Newton Stewart,

J Dunlop, Kirkcudbright, N Armstrong, Newton Stewart, R Christie, Port William, J Richardson, Leswalt and A Johansen, Denmark.

Commenting afterwards on the sale and his use of the imported Line One Hereford genetics throughout his 165 cow herd, owner John Douglas said he was pleased with the commercial interest and that the feedback coming from recent bull customers was encouraging, with most of them remarking on the consistency of the calf crop and also the reduction in labour from using this strain of cattle selected over generations for yearling growth, efficiency and problem free cows.