Archived News

19th October 2014

Five home bred Belted Galloway heifers were due to calve from mid September.  So far we have four male calves and one female so I’m hoping the last will also be a heifer. 

 

It’s well known that Belted Galloways are incredibly efficient at convert poor grazing and given too much grass in front of them, this appears to quickly turn to extra fat they really could do without at calving.

 

A couple of the dams were a bit overweight and with too much fat around the pelvis we had to give some assistance in the final stage of two births; those calves were also quite large!    

The Belted Galloway dams are not predictable at birth and so we use a cattle catcher and pop it over the new born calf with mother on the outside.

 

The catcher is towed to the field where calving is due.

The tele-hander drives to the rear of the trailer and attaches the catcher to the front of the handler.

This calf is still a little wobbly on its feet and not yet licked dry.

We tag the calf and castrate the males.

Then it's back to the serious job of feeding!

The cattle live outside all year round, although in persistently bad weather we can provide some shelter or access to a barn; if they choose to go in! But with their double layered coat they are well protected from the elements.

 

The cattle are raised naturally with calves ‘at foot’ and drinking their mother’s milk for nine months.

 

We sell our Belted Galloway beef on a seasonal basis.  All the beef is from our pedigree herd born and bred on the farm. 

Grazing the herb rich chalk downland and unimproved grass meadows creates tasty beef higher in omega 3 than cereal fed cattle. 

 

Our slow grown Beltie beef is dry aged for 28 days. 

 

Our next Beltie Beef boxes can be ordered now and will be ready for collection on 3^rd November.  We have a great selection of boxes available in readiness for the Christmas season including a special edition box of Beltie beef with Manor Farm pork, sausages and bacon. Yummy!

Please get in touch via the contact page to check availability and place an order.

 

The yields for harvest 2014 were beyond those in Laurence’s memory, which during August was a real morale booster.  However as I mentioned in a previous note, France had a very wet summer and we have subsequently seen significant consequences of this on World prices.

 

The milling wheat in France was downgraded to feed wheat which meant higher prices for the remaining milling wheat being sold.  We tend to hedge our risks and sell some forward, so we sold a percentage of our grain at prices agreed in spring.

 

With the French wheat downgraded to feed wheat; that market was flooded and the price plummeted. Feed wheat prices in 2013 were around £150 per tonne but yieds and quality were poor, whereas in 2014 the market was flooded with wheat and prices dropped to £95/tonne at one point.

 

With far more work entailed in harvesting, carting and storing the bumper yields this summer; the cost of production rose and ironically once yield, production costs and World prices are taken into account, although we had a good harvest overall it probably didn't cover the poor harvest of 2013.

 

Growing conditions have been kind this year and most crops have been harvested earlier than usual.  Maize was silaged and clamped in July and this week we open up the first clamp for autumn feeding of the Friesian x cattle.

We are now harvesting maize seed from the remaining crop which will be sold for other farmers to grow next year.

We use the same combine harvester as for whaet and barley, but change the header bar.

The chopped stems are spread out behind the combine harvester

 

Hundreds of hours of field work have already been completed; with milling and feed wheat and oilseed rape established and growing well.  This week a further 100 acres of Crusoe milling wheat will be drilled and 200 acres of feed Barley subject to the weather and ground conditions.

 

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