Breed Development

The Luing Cattle Society places great importance on the development of the breed. This is reflected in the work and commitment of our two breed development officers.

Neil McGowan
Neil helps run the McGowan family farm at Incheoch, where the Dirnanean herd of 120 Luing cows is the main enterprise. They share the 1200 acre upland farm with 50 pure Simmental cows producing breeding bulls, a few Sim-Luing cows and 1100 ewes most of which are Lleyns but a few Texels. "Cows that are easy to work with, get on and calve easily, re-breed quickly and rear a good calf while putting enough condition on their back to cheapen the long winter and last well, are why Luings are a favourite at Incheoch," says Neil. "The fact that our Luing heifers can cope with calving at 2 years old in our environment and their brothers will finish as steers off grass at 18 months weighing 320kg deadweight means they are at the core of our business too!" Neil is married to Debbie and they have two children Tally and Angus .

Robert McNee
Robert farms at Over Finlarg Farm, Tealing, Angus. It's very much a family business with Robert working alongside his wife Hazel running a herd of 100 Luings. He very much enjoys keeping abreast of current working traits in the breed while ensuring that the Luing constantly meets the ever changing needs of the beef industry.

Iain Aitken in Canada

Fall 2009 heralded the end of an era in our Luing herd as we shipped the last of our "granny cows". Back in 2001, Dr Church allowed me the pick of the Lochend mature cows to form the nucleus of my new herd. I selected four good looking cows that demonstrated the characteristics I was looking for and was surprised when we got the pedigrees transferred to discover that two were 14 and two 15 years old! Read More...

Studying Cattle Breeding in Germany

By Neil McGowan

In November 2010, Neil and Debbie McGowan from the Dirnanean herd attended the Eurotier exhibition in Hanover and visited a few Simmental herds in the North East of Germany. This is an account of their trip. Read More...