Chief executive of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society
Born: August 24, 1953;
Died: September 3, 2015
Ron McHattie, who has died aged 63, was the chief executive of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society and played a major role in restoring the breed's pre-eminent position in the beef industry.
He was appointed the society's first chief executive in January 1997, and during his tenure, annual registrations of Aberdeen Angus in the Herd Book more than doubled to a record 14,732 last year. The society's financial reserves also increased five-fold to more than £2,400,000 during Mr McHattie's stewardship. The society is now the second largest beef breed society in the UK in terms of beef breed sired calves registered with the British Cattle Movement Service
Mr McHattie was also instrumental in developing a close relationship with leading retailers and the meat trade which has been key to the breed's expansion and the premium prices secured for Aberdeen-Angus and Aberdeen Angus cross cattle in the market place.
He was passionate about maintaining the integrity of the Aberdeen Angus brand which saw the society introduce a ground-breaking tissue sampling programme last year to validate the pedigrees of Aberdeen Angus cattle and ensure the authenticity of beef sold as Aberdeen Angus.
The society was also the first in the UK to adopt the ABRI Breedplan performance recording system from Australia which has been rolled out to other beef breed societies through the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society's subsidiary company, Pedigree Cattle Services.
Mr McHattie travelled widely in his role as chief executive and represented the society on the board of the World Aberdeen Angus Secretariat which meets every two years in different parts of the world. He attended Aberdeen Angus World Forums in Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand and in recent months was heavily involved in the planning of the next World Forum which in 2017 will be held in the UK for the first time since 1977.
Announcing his decision in April to retire in the autumn, Mr McHattie said: "Overseeing the breed during its resurgence as a leading beef breed and the development of the branded Aberdeen Angus beef range in leading supermarkets has been hugely exciting.
"The growth of the Society and the Aberdeen Angus brand is testament to the hard work of breeders in producing cattle to suit the modern market and the foresight shown by the society's council in working with leading processors and retailers to develop markets."
A tenant farmer's son from Forres, Moray, Mr McHattie graduated from the East of Scotland College of Agriculture and spent the early part of his career working with a dairy herd at Moffat and as a working farm manager on farms at Galashiels and North Fife where he developed his expertise in beef finishing systems.
He then moved north to Brahan Farms, Conon Bridge, where he managed a large-scale suckler and beef finishing enterprise on 1000 hectares for eight years before moving to the co-operative development organisation, SAOS, as a project manager, gaining considerable experience in the marketing of agricultural products, supply chain management and the identification of appropriate marketing structures.
He was appointed chief executive of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society with the remit to improve and further develop all aspects of the society's business and maximise the commercial opportunities for Aberdeen Angus cattle. Breed president David Evans said these aspirations had certainly been achieved. "The success of the breed under Ron's stewardship has exceeded all expectations," said Mr Evans.
In spite of recent health issues, Mr McHattie had continued to be actively involved in the running of the society, attending a meeting of the society's council at the end of August and conducting business from his home in Lochussie .
A statement from the society said Mr McHattie had died peacefully at home surrounded by his family.
"The news of Ron's untimely passing will come as a shock to his many friends in the Aberdeen-Angus breed both at home and abroad," said David Evans. "He played a huge and influential role in the phenomenal development and expansion of the Aberdeen-Angus breed in the UK and Ireland over the past 18 years and his wise counsel will be greatly missed."
Mr McHattie is survived by his wif, Christine, daughter Laura, and son Frazer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here