Lochend Luing 223U at 19 years old

223U rearing her last calf at 23 years old

Lochend Leccamore 24P

Rothney Ballycastle 503F at 12 years old

Medicine River Solomon at 3 years old

Galena Diesel at 4 years old

Our Breeding Program

After much thought and research we have concluded that the best way to create a herd of trouble free, low maintenance cattle is through a long-term program of line breeding. Our goal is to replicate the characteristics and type of the best cow we have ever owned - Lochend Luing 223U

223U was an exceptional cow by any standards, the type that is profitable in any herd - a cow that turned in a calf year after year with no assistance, no fuss and no problems.
We purchased 223U in 2001 at the age of 15 and she went on to give us 7 natural calves as well as 6 born by embryo transfer. In the fall of 2009 we reluctantly shipped her at the age of 23½ as she had reared a poorer calf and was showing early signs of arthritis. Despite her great age, this cow never received any extra feed or preferential treatment and easily maintained her condition running with the herd.

223U has probably been the most influential cow in the Canadian Luing breed to date and combined the best of the old Canadian Snowlander bloodlines with Luing Bonus, a Scottish bull of the traditional type, imported in 1984.

We now have sons and daughters off 223U by three different bulls and by breeding sons off one bull to daughters off the others and vice versa the matings will all be of the half brother/half sister variety. All offspring will effectively carry 50% of 223Us blood. We believe that line-breeding in this manner will give us the best chance of replicating the type of this exceptional cow and carrying it forward for generations to come

Other “Leading Ladies”

Lochend Leccamore 24P
We purchased this double grand-daughter of 223U from Jeff Longard in the fall of 2009 as we felt she has great potential to add to our core line-bred pool. True to form for this bloodline she has proven to be Jeff’s most trouble free, consistent producer. We also purchased her two Solomon sired daughters.

Rothney Ballycastle 503F
We were lucky to acquire this cow in 2007 when the last remnants of the Rothney herd were dispersed. She is the only remaining descendant of what the late Sandy Cross considered his best cow line. She is also a full sister to the hugely influential, but now deceased bull, Rothney Grand 53G. Visually, she is a throwback to an older type of Luing that was once common in Scotland. Her heavy hair coat comes from the heavy influence of both Luing Buzzard and his son Luing Grizzly in her extended pedigree. These two bulls made a major contribution to the development of the Luing breed in Scotland. After performing embryo transfer on 503F in 2008 we now have several Solomon sired sons and daughters entering the breeding herd. With this mating we have combined the best Lochend and Rothney cow lines and plan to incorporate the daughters into our line-breeding program.

Current herd sires

Medicine River Solomon
Solomon, a son of Medicine River Bear, is our senior herd sire. His dam is Lochend Luing 223U. This bull could best be described as “round, sound and close to the ground”. He is only a frame score four bull but weighed over 2000lbs when we pulled him from breeding 40 cows as a three year old. This very masculine bull covered 65 females as a small two year old. We are very pleased with the form and phenotype of his daughters and most of the replacement heifers we will breed in 2010 will be Solomon sired.

Medicine River Ulyssis and Warrior These two full brothers, sons of 223U, born as a result of embryo transfer will join Solomon as foundational sires in our line-breeding program and will be bred to Solomon daughters this summer. Their A.I. sire was Lochend Snowlander 185Y who shares 27/32 ancestors in the fourth generation of his extended pedigree with 223U. It was the closest mating we could create and we hope this will help to fix the longevity and type we are seeking

Galena Diesel A new addition to our herd, purchased from the Galbraiths at Brisco, British Columbia. We will use him to start an outcross (but line-bred) group of cattle to supply customers who may wish an alternative to our core line-breeding bloodline. He will be mated to females that have no Lochend Luing 223U blood in their background. This bull differs genetically from most Canadian Luings in that he is descended from Luing Jet on the sire side.

For information on how we rear and select our young bulls and details about cattle that we currently have for sale please go to the “Luings for sale” page.