Archived News

13th November 2019

We began to 'bring home' our Belted Galloway herd which graze the North Downs each year, between April and about November or December.  The cattle have been undertaking important conservation grazing on this rare chalk downland habitat as part of our Higher Level Stewardship Scheme during the past ten years.  For the remainder of the year the cattle may be seen in the fields around Wotton, Shere, Albury and Abinger.

In August the ‘Beltie’ cows and heifers were pregnancy tested and have remained grazing local pasture with their calves ‘at foot’.  However, for these two groups with calves at foot, we avoid fields with any public paths so that the suckler herd is not disturbed.  This is quite restrictive because the majority of fields in this area do have some form of public right of way dissecting them.

Mister M’s group have been grazing behind the Kingfisher Farm Shop, in the field we call ‘Cressbeds’ and they have been alternating with the fields south of Abinger Hall,  whilst Ethelred’s group have been in the fields around Raikes Farm.

The calves have been naturally weaning themselves over the past nine months as they gradually increased the amount of grass they ate whilst reducing the quantity of milk suckled from their mothers.

This week the cows and calves have been sorted out and final weaning has taken place.  Ears have been trimmed so that we can read the ear tags even at a distance and any missing tags were replaced. 

The in-calf cows will go back out to the fields during the winter and will have access to additional hay if needed.  Their weaned calves will stay together in a group over winter and for much of the next two years.

The bulls; Carsluith Ethelred and Barwise Mister M have been taking it easy for a while back at the farm, but in December they will run with a few of the girls that were scanned as not-in-calf (NIC) during the summer.

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