Archived News

12th July 2011

I recently spent a fascinating evening at Plumpton College of Agriculture for a course in Herd Fertility.  The conference room was filled with farmers from the south east, gathered together within the beautiful setting of the South Downs. A few were graziers of the South Downs; a mirror image of our cattle grazing the North Downs.

We had presentations from Mary Vickers, EBLEX Senior Beef Scientist and Nanja Verkuijl, local Vet about cow and bull fertility and Jonathon Eckley, also from EBLEX on farm costings.  It was a fascinating evening encompassing bull MOT’s, body condition scoring and the many factors involved in choosing the breeding cows. 

Unsurprisingly the seminar encompassed topics that most farmers had experienced on their farms at one time or another; loss of fertility in cows, calving period not tight enough, unexplained still born calf and sub-fertile or infertile bulls. They recommended that every bull be routinely checked eight weeks before mating as any number of things can cause bull sub-fertility or infertility: lack of libido, lameness, low body condition scoring, scrotal hernia or penile damage.

We bought a bull last year and had been informed that he’d worked successfully on his previous farm, but he came to Manor Farm and didn’t get one of our cows in calf.  It transpired that the bull had some sort of irreversible testicular damage before the he came to us.  

As a general rule of thumb, we’ve so far produced the ‘Beltie’ beef as a seasonal speciality in autumn and spring; however things will be out of kilter in about three years time, all due to the infertile bull and the loss of six months in the breeding programme. We will always ask for a bull MOT in future!

Back on the farm, the remaining Belted Galloway calves have been weaned; the cows and calves being kept safely in separate barns for a week, two miles apart. If they were left out in fields they’d holler to each other and do their best to get back together.

With the weaning process over, the calves have moved onto the downs to join the other young-stock already grazing there and the cows turned out into the field behind the Cress Beds creating an idyllic pastoral scene.

In between family life and more recently, burning the candle at both ends with painting and grouting, I am organising the next round of Belted Galloway beef sales.  We are weighing and checking the conformation of the finishing stock on a regular basis to gain a better indication of when the cattle will be ready for the abattoir.