2023 Limousin Annual Journal

OBITUARIES
Norman
Cruikshank
2022 saw the passing of Norman Cruikshank,
past Chairman of the Society and life long lover
of Limousin. Here we share Norman’s obituary,
first published in the Scottish Farmer.
Norman was born at Kingseat Farm,
Newmachar, Aberdeenshire – the fourth child
of seven to Norman and Maggie Cruickshank.
In 1943, the family moved to Waulkmill Farm,
in the village of Strachan, Banchory.
After leaving school, he went to agricultural
college in Aberdeen for two years before going
to the dairy college at Auchincruive for a year.
He returned north and took on the shepherd’s
post at Glen O’Dye Estate for five years.
He met his future wife, Elma, at one of the local
dances and they married in Banchory East
Church, in August, 1961, and had two children,
Gwen and Paul.
He moved to Lanarkshire in 1963 with brothers,
Jim and Eddie and families, buying Hill of
Kilncadzow Farm, Carluke, where they ran a
herd of 200 dairy cows. After a few years, Eddie
returned to Aberdeenshire, and Norman and
Jim carried on in partnership at ‘The Hill’, while
a further expansion of the business came in
1976 with the purchase of Easter Dunsyston
Farm, at Airdrie.
After his family, Norman’s ‘love of his life’,
Limousin cattle, began with a trip to the
Paris Show in 1974 when he spotted his first
Limousins. It wasn’t long after returning home
from the Paris Show that a Limousin bull was
bought to work on the dairy herd at The Hill.
The calves impressed him and by 1978 the
first pedigree cow was bought to pave the
way for three imported heifers for the newlyestablished
Ruadh Limousin herd. A meeting
at an open day at Tommy Holliday’s farm at
Coniston, in Cumbria, in 1979, was to have a
profound effect on Norman, as attending that
open day were Pierre Gardette and Robert
Moreaux, renowned Limousin cattle breeders
from France.
An invitation to France was made, resulting in
the purchase of more heifers and a bull. The
bull was Paquebot, who was to make a big
impression on the developing Limousin herd.
Tragically, in 1981, brucellosis caused the loss of
the dairy herd, including half of the Limousins,
but Norman and Jim looked to the future, and
continued to rebuild the Limousin herd with
further imports from France.
An amicable split in the brothers’ partnership
was to follow, leaving Norman with 30 pedigree
cows. Hill of Kilncadzow was sold and in 1984,
Norman and Elma took over the tenancy at
Cowford Farm, Carstairs. By then, they had
established the Normande Limousin herd and
continued to build it up to 70 breeding cows.
One of the major breakthroughs in the herd
came in 1983. The late Dick Jobling, of the
Rake herd, had bought Paquebot semen and
he raved about a bull calf he had by Paquebot,
so Norman went to see him at the MLC Test
Centre, in York.
He bought a half share in him with Dick and
that bull, Rake Terence, had a major impact on
the Normande herd, becoming one of the top
sires in the UK, his sons eagerly sought after at
major sales, with daughters exported regularly
to Northern and Southern Ireland.
By the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the Normande
prefix was a major force within the breed
gaining respect and admiration of fellow
pedigree breeders and regular commercial bull
buyers.
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