Toplines and Tales

107 - Characters in Livestock - Eustace Burke

This week we cross to Southern Ireland to speak with Angus breeder Eustace Burke.  From humble beginnings we hear how Eustace and his father built up the highly successful Clonthead herd of Angus including the all-Ireland medium herd competition. We go on to his role as president of the Irish Aberdeen Angus Association and their post-brexit role as a HQ for a number of breeds in Europe as well the function of The Government funded Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) database which aims to record data ‘from conception to fork’ through genomic evaluation!

106 - Characters in Livestock - Neil and Sally Lloyd

While we are in the closing stages of the fatstock show season we chat to freelance stockman, breeder and top judge, Neil Lloyd and his wife Sally. We hear about his early days being educated into the livestock showing business through pigs, his successes with all breeds of cattle and that infamous wedding in the main ring at Smithfield Show in London. A couple always striving for perfection, the conversation includes the variation of fatstock cattle across the regions and the family's progress with Welsh Black cattle and Blue Texel sheep.

105 - Characters in Livestock - David Walker

This week’s character, David Walker from Galcantray, needs no introduction. From bringing out top Suffolk sheep and Angus cattle, the big man is always amongst the craic when it comes to showtime. We chat through his successes and then move on to his more recent passion, Clydesdale horses, where Galcantray are now really making their mark.

104 - Live from Agriscot

This week I set up camp on HARBRO's tradestand at Agriscot in Edinburgh, the UK’s largest farming trade show, and chatted to a number of invited guests including Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism, Sarah Miller, CEO of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), some of the prestigious finalists of Scotland’s farming awards as well as other high profile forward thinking farmers at the cutting edge of the UK livestock industry.

103 - Agriscot Beef Farmer of the Year Awards

This week take a closer look at the highly interesting commercial side of the British Livestock world by profiling the shortlist contenders for the Agriscot Beef Farmer of the Year Awards. Firstly we take a look at James Young’s large scale beef operation in Ayrshire, then Harry Brown’s diversification scheme in Aberdeenshire and finally Ian Richardson’s suckled calf outfit in the Borders.

102 - Characters in Livestock - Roley Fraser

After only a few weeks since his death, I hope the family of Roley Fraser won’t mind me sharing what I hold as one of my dearest possessions, an edited interview with him in 2013. One of the World's top auctioneers, Roley was such a wise man with phases such as ‘After the 1st war, if you had pretentions of being landed gentry you had a herd of shorthorns, but after the 2nd war you had a herd of Angus,’ and ‘by the late 80s the Angus got very peculiar, they looked very big sideways on but you could hardly see them when they walked away from you!’
I will admit that much of my own knowledge of the Angus breed came from this very conversation, and am privileged to have it on record.

101 - Characters in Livestock - Bernard Llewellyn

Such an entertaining character, Bernard Lewellyn is a great horseman, ex jockey, and cousin of a Grand National winner, a sheep-shearer, TV presenter, committee man and we hear about inheriting and running a huge castle as a tourist attraction, with the addition of a few rare breed stock. From there a love of the Longhorn cattle took Bernard to the very top of that breed and we hear of its successes before going on to talk about his involvement in the European government with this extremely wise Welshman.

100 - ***our 100th episode***

Yes, I struggle to believe it as well, but we have published 100 episodes of Toplines and Tales in less than 2 years. This week I have hand-picked over a dozen of my favourite snippets from all of the pieces, including the ones you all found most popular, such as Allanfauld, Rawburn, Chicago exhibition, Captain deQuincey and many more, in this bumper 100th broadcast.

99 - Characters in Livestock - Montie Soules

As characters go, Montie Soules has had a highly interesting career before taking over the helm of the American Shorthorn Association which this year celebrates its 150 years. Along with Dr Bob, who has written a great book on the subject, we take a look at the success of the modern breed on both sides of the Atlantic before the celebrations are wrapped up at Louisville livestock show shortly. With wise words like ‘ we’ve done everything in this country to try and ruin the Shorthorn cow, but I’m telling ya, it can’t be done!’ Montie certainly makes for an entertaining listen.

98 - Characters in Livestock - Andrew Hornall

This week we welcome another ‘character’ to the podcast, Andrew ‘Honky’ Hornall. A highly successful Charolais cattle breeder with a long association with the breed, we hear about his Interbreed success at the Highland Show with Faye and other animals. Also through his connections to the show we discuss its modern format and challenges before chatting through his family business and an upbeat look at the future of agriculture in a casual chat which such a great character and entrepreneur.