Double top for best bulls

PROOF that more and more buyers are taking note of Estimated Breeding Values

(EBVs) when buying a bull came last week when top one per cent Charolais bulls commanded more than twice the price of average animals. Figures from the Meat and Livestock Commission's Signet Breeding Services show animals with average EBVs at the Perth Bull sales made £4,339 with the top one per cent going under the hammer at £8,837.

There was also a premium of almost 50 per cent for animals in the top 25 per cent which sold at an average of £6,140. Signet Breeding Services Manager Sam Boon said: "These figures are really quite outstanding and clearly demonstrate the value of recording. "There can be no doubt that buyers are looking more and more at the figures before they buy and basing their investment decisions on them."