Wedderlie History

The WEDDERLIE herd was established by Major W.A.Baird in 1913 with the purchase of 4 heifers and a bull, “Royalson”. One of these heifers, Erin Eglantine A was a triplet and at 25 months of age produced their first registered bull, appropriately named “Edgar of Wedderlie”. In the same herd book, the entries read: “ Evelyn of Wedderlie” calved Jan.14, 1914, and “Princess Royal of Wedderlie” calved Feb.24, 1914, both by Royalson.

Now owned by Jenny Campbell, the herd has expanded to 170 cows and is currently the largest in the UK.

The TUI herd was established by John in 1976 with the importation of 4 heifers from his Father’s PIKIHUIA herd in New Zealand but it was merged with Wedderlie under the ‘Wedderlie’ prefix in January 2000.

Our daughter, Wanda, was given Tui Ergamaid for her 21^st birthday and has since added Evelina V32 of Eastfield, descended from a Wedderlie cow, to form the ELLIN herd.

The TUI herd was merged with WEDDERLIE under the 'Wedderlie' prefix in January 2000.

The historic house of Wedderlie was originally a 'fortalice' or 'keep' in 1258 and converted to a mansion house in 1684 by the Edgar family who lived here from 1327 to 1733. Sir Richard Edgar was a witness at the second marriage of Robert the Bruce and three of the Edgar's were Members of Parliament for Berwickshire, Edinburgh and Haddington. They 'fell on hard times' and were forced to leave Wedderlie, defacing the family crest as they left in darkness. It was later owned by Lord Blantyre and tenanted by the Clay family, one of whom, John Clay Jnr was involved in the foundation of the Chicago Stock Yards. The farm of Wedderlie and the herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle were bought by Captain Tom Elliot from Sir David Baird in 1942 and on his death in 1951, they passed to his daughter, Jenny Campbell.