BCBC 2027: Breeding for a Brighter Future

So, you've told us a little bit about yourself.

Now, maybe tell us a little bit of history about the BCBC.

Now, it isn't, as some people might think, just for those Holstein breeders and away they go.

It's all breeds.

It's beef as well as dairy.

Just tell us a little bit about the history of the club.

So, yeah, British Cattle Breeders was formed in 1946.

And I guess...

The platform is for exchange between academics, latest research that is deliverable for farmers to use at home.

It doesn't matter whether you're breeding rare breeds or if you're breeding, like we said, Holsteins, like the most common UK dairy breeds, or if you're breeding crossbreds.

There's information on both days, Beef Day and Dairy Day, on the workshop day that's relevant to everybody.

I'm always amazed at British cattle breeders, how many beef farmers stay for Dairy Day and how many dairy farmers stay for Beef Day.

Because there's always a nugget of information that you can pick up from everybody else.

Um, and yeah, originally it was based in Cambridge as a Cambridge cattle breeders.

And now it's moved to Telford, um, kind of British cattle breeders club.

Um, it was formed by Sir John Hammond.

Um, and we still honor Sir John Hammond's work, um, all the way back from the forties and fifties, um, with the Sir John Hammond award, which we give, um, alongside the British Society of Animal Science, um, for people that, um, have delivered a lot or given a lot of their time and research into uk animal agriculture um so we're very proud to do that every year um and i mean this year we've got um yeah, two very willing recipients of that award, which is great.

And I think it's just the main thing about British cattle breeders that I think is amazing for farmers is it's incredibly welcoming and friendly.

It's a relatively small, it is a small club.

The conference is really well attended, but all the academics are very aware that this is a club for farmers it's getting information that is relevant and usable to farmers it's not stuff that is going to be pie in the sky looking at really really novel scientific innovations which we may never see on farm this is generally deliverable information that's the cutting edge of what's available on farm And we've got a nice mix of farmers as well that will bring stuff that they're doing on farm that is right at the cutting edge and deliver it to give people, well, maybe I could do that on my farm as well.

I know certainly from a Kingshay point of view, I think we started sponsoring it back in the COVID years when it was online, as most conferences went online.

And I've been very lucky that I've attended the conference in the last sort of three or four years myself.

And it's one of those conferences that I really enjoy.

I think that people that know me know that genetics and that side of things has never really been really high up my list.

There's other passions that I have, but actually it's really given me an opportunity to open my eyes and really understand a lot more about genetics and the breeding side of things.