International Norbreck Exports

Limousins set sail for Poland

This week the largest consignment of pedigree Limousin beef breeding cattle from the UK set sail to Poland. A total of thirty three Limousin heifers from the north of England were sold to a Polish client. The consignment was made up of eleven heifers from Jenkinson's Whinfell herd in Penrith and twenty two from Steven and Michael Priestley’s Brontemoor herd near Bradford.

The joint venture was organised by Norbreck Genetics in Lancaster in conjunction with Carlisle breeder Gordon Wilson from the Bankdale herd and his daughter Helen.

“Norbreck Genetics and Cogent Breeding Limited have already exported semen to Poland from two well known Limousin breeders: Grahams Samson from Doug Edgar, Penrith and Nouvelle Prospect from Richard and Christine Williams at Shifnal,” explained Philip Halhead, Managing Director of Norbreck Genetics and Beef Consultant for Cogent Limited “so it was a natural progression for us to facilitate export of British beef females so they could develop their own beef breeding programmes”.

The polish breeders are aiming to build up their suckler cow herd to 1,000 head and are happy to visit the UK in their search. It seems they have recognised the high quality genetics from England and are happy to travel past the other mainland EU countries to source their stock.

There is certainly a growing interest from Eastern European farmers and the trend looks set to continue with a growing number of enquiries about British beef livestock.

The Norbreck genetics consortium hopes that more breeders will realise that selling abroad is a good option and that the process is quite simple because it is managed for them.

The thirty three heifers travelling to Poland range between 12 and 18 months and are ready for breeding as soon as they reach their destination. Helen Wilson who managed the process said “many breeders think the paperwork is extra hassle, but we do that all for them. We have worked very hard to make sending livestock abroad as simple as possible,” she added “more importantly, we want breeders to feel it is just as easy to send stock abroad as it is to send them 20 miles down the road”.

Steven Priestley who has been breeding pedigree limousines for 20 years, confirmed that the process was far easier than he imagined “when we were first approached after the Royal Welsh show we thought it would be more complicated, in fact we had very little to do as it was all organised for us”. He added “we would definitely like to do something similar again, and I plan to go out to Poland next summer to see how the stock are doing”

Working closely with DEFRA, Gordon Wilson commented that both the Leeds and Carlisle animal health offices were very helpful. “It’s not something they have had the opportunity to be involved in before, but they were really supportive and keen for us to make it work”.

Whilst the resumption of live export began earlier in the year, it has taken some time to develop the best infrastructure to export the stock. “When you are exporting breeding stock it is even more important to make sure they arrive in the best possible condition” explained Gordon Wilson, “we wanted to start this business sooner, but chose not to until we had the right haulier and network in place” he added. A German transport company has now been appointed because of their high quality transportation, fully equipped with fans and drinking bowls. The cattle are well cared for on their journey and there are several stops to give them a proper break.

Anyone interested in selling beef breeding cattle to eastern EU countries should contact Gordon Wilson from the Bankdale herd on 0774 085 1156.